Former Office for the Board of Guardians of Walsall Poor Law Union features in Victorian Society’s Top Ten Endangered Buildings list 2023

Griff Rhys Jones, Victorian Society President said: “Don’t be frightened of the workhouse. They were a necessary step towards our own welfare programmes. This one became part of a hospital next door which has now been demolished. It seems extraordinarily wasteful and wilful that a new use cannot be found for this fine building. It was offices originally and could fulfil that function again. Why erect a boring cookie-cutter office design when you could work in something this stylish! This is a palace looking for a new occupant.”

This attractive Jacobethan building is the only part of the Victorian Walsall Manor Hospital that was not demolished. The Building pre-dated the hospital as it was built as the offices for the Central Union Workhouse which housed 350 people. The two storey building has mullion-transom windows with a tower on the right corner with an arched doorway topped by a shield, a corbelled eaves cornice, and a lead-clad ogee dome with an ornate weathervane on the finial. The quality of the design and building are very handsome. More details including plans and information is here https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Walsall/

The building has been left untouched since 2007 and is now marooned in front of the large new hospital. The building had been on the market since August 2022. It would make very superior offices when restored or could be converted for housing.

The full Top Ten list 2023 that can be read here includes an earl’s mansion that became a hostel for the homeless, two engineering marvels that saved lives through improving sanitation, and a club where newly enfranchised voters could meet. There are two Grade II listed buildings in the West Midlands on the 2023 list.

The list is based on public nominations from across England and Wales, and the buildings selected represent industrial, religious, domestic, and civic architecture from across the nation with unique historical and community significance and value. Nominated buildings must be dated between 1837 and 1914.

Photo credit: Tim Bridges for The Victorian Society

18/06/2023