New Walsall Museum could cost up to £12m and take over a decade to deliver

At a scrutiny meeting in January, campaigners Lauren Broxton and Linda Boys both said they have been refused access to the 2024 report that cost taxpayers £47,500 on the grounds of commercial interest.

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But we can now reveal the document reveals information about two potential sites for the ‘new, improved’ museum offer as well as estimated costs.

It also pays tribute to the ‘dedicated and enthusiastic’ staff and volunteers at the museum who have created an ‘outstanding’ experience despite ‘very little investment’.

Council data confirms that no capital investment has been given to the museum over the last decade, and there is no dedicated marketing budget.

Official figures state that visitor numbers were 13,941 in 2025 and 13,607 in 2024.

Walsall Council decided in September to move the museum from its building on Littleton Street West to an unknown town centre location.

It plans to rent the current building to Walsall College for a lease of 125 years at a peppercorn rent.

Campaigners argue that the building, a former Victorian leather factory, is the museum’s largest artefact and therefore it should be kept where it is.

But the council is pressing on with its plans and Leader Councillor Mike Bird said live on BBC Radio WM last month that the building has ‘got no heritage at all’.

The feasibility study, shown to the LDRS, says the building is ‘partly recognised as an important part of local heritage’ and currently an application is being reviewed by Historic England to have it listed.

In the feasibility study, architects Hill Harvey-Wood were asked to consider whether the current museum is fit for the future, what kind of museum would benefit residents for years to come and where would it be best located.

In 2015, following the closure of the Walsall Museum inside the Lichfield Street library, ‘substantial work’ was undertaken by the council to develop the Leather Museum into a Walsall Heritage Centre.

The study said investing in the current site would lead to an improved offer at a medium cost, but it could not achieve the ambitions of the Future Walsall Museum.

It also said that it would be a ‘missed opportunity’ for the future museum to be on the outskirts of the town centre following the major transformation plans.

Four locations in Walsall town centre were reviewed as part of the study. Two sites were shortlisted as ‘satisfying the requirements of the brief’.

Costs at either of the two sites were estimated at between £5m to £12m.

Timescales in the report say it could take between five and 11 years before any future museum opens.

Regardless of where it will be located, Hill Harvey-Wood said ‘communities and potential users need to be involved in the process from the start rather than half-way through or at the end’.

It was also noted that it is ‘not appreciated how much the museum is rooted in some of the poorer communities in the borough’.