Historic West Bromwich gas showroom faces demolition

Museum bosses have been given a deadline of March to 'firm their interest' by Sandwell Council.

Otherwise the council's cabinet member for regeneration, Councillor Paul Moore has said officers will push forward with plans to demolish it.

Heritage bosses want to to relocate the 1940s Gas Showroom to its Dudley base as part of a £21 million project and are in talks with the council.

This week a planning application was lodged by the council to knock it down.

Councillor Moore said: "The museum has approached the council, but I would describe it as an expression of interest.

"The museum has got another month to come back to use and firm up their interest otherwise the council will be proceeding to demolish it.

"I am not prepared to have an eyesore building on the High Street for another five years

"Either they get on with it and come up with a firm plan or we will take action."

Laura Wakelin, director of communications and marketing at the Black Country Living Museum, said: "We have been talking to the asset management officers at Sandwell Council and I understand that it could be demolished in April. So we need to get the funding in place by then."

The gas showroom on the corner of Lombard Street West and the High Street, along with neighbouring Parish's Restaurant, are envisaged to form part of a new 1940-60s town at the popular open-air museum, to sit behind the current 1930s street scene.

Other buildings identified for the new town include the Woodside Library in Stourbridge Road, Dudley, and William Griffin & Sons, a chain-making firm in Woods Lane, Cradley.

Ms Wakelin added: "In total it is a £21 million project. We already have some funding from the LEP, and we have submitted an application to the Heritage Lottery. We are waiting to hear back from them, and hope to have a response in the next few weeks."

Highlighting the important heritage of the gas showroom, and its key place in the entire scheme, she added: "It has got many of the historical elements we want, and helps to tell the story of what life was like in the 1940s. It has got that link to coal which ties in with what we already have at the museum.

"We have a plot on the area behind the 1930s street where we have outlined for it to go.

"The showroom is one of the 'trans-locational' sites we're looking at, where we would like to physically move them on to the museum."

This would require the buildings to be taken down carefully 'brick-by-brick' and then rebuilt again at the museum site, rather than just being knocked down.

The museum wants to use the same method to relocate Parish's Restaurant and Woodside Library, the latter of which has lain empty and boarded up since its closure in 2008 under council cost-cutting measures.

Other buildings would be recreated as part of the museum's plans, such as The Elephant & Castle pub in Wolverhampton that was controversially demolished in 2001, and a brickworks modelled on the former Harris & Pearson site in Quarry Bank.

While funds have been secured for the project from the Local Enterprise Partnership, it it still reliant on £10 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund. However the demolition application submitted by Sandwell Council indicates that time is running out to save the gas showroom.

The application states that the premises are becoming unsafe, and proposes to tear the building down both by machine and by hand.

The gas showroom suffered bomb damage in during the Blitz. It was left empty for many years and was used as a centre for unemployed people during the 1990s, and for some of the local authority's offices.

West Bromwich Central ward Councillor Bawa Dhallu, said: "We have just been told that it is going to be demolished. If the museum wants to have it they need to confirm with us their plans."