Walsall Art Deco And Interesting Buildings

Walsall is further proof that there are stunning, art deco and moderne buildings to be found in even the smallest of towns. When actually has a plethora of interesting buildings, and its Victorian buildings are as big and imposing as you will find anywhere, but as usual, these are not really the buildings that interest me, as lovely as they may be.

I have found some amazing examples of deco on the outskirts of Walsall and in other small towns that make up the borough, but I will save these for another post, and instead concentrate on buildings that you can find in and around the town centre.

Former Walsall Observer Building

This glorious building was once home to the Walsall Observer, but this was last published in 2009 and I’m not sure if it is in use anymore. Certainly the canopy has seen better days, but it has so many lovely deco features, not least the Jerome Chambers door.

Look out for the lion carvings, a bit of a theme in Walsall that do pop up again…

Enoch Evans Solicitors, Formally St Paul’s Sunday School and Church Hall

This building is still in use as a solicitors, and was built on Hatherton Street in 1934. The roof detailing is interesting, as are the ledges, frames and decoration of the windows. I’m guessing the actual windows are a modern replacement.

The Challenge Building

This stunning building on Hatherton Street is currently under threat of demolition, which would be a real shame as it is a majectic Art Deco building with a wonderful curved shape and a trademark deco clock detail. Let’s hope Walsall council change their mind on this one.

Former Woolworths Building

And here are some more lions, as promised. Woolworths often built wonderful Art Deco buildings for their stores, and this is a prime example, and still in wonderful condition. The bottom of the store is, unfortunately, Sports Direct, so not worth photographing, but the top is deco personified and is just stunning.

Seymour House

I have no real information about this building, which was Kiddisave but is now lying empty. It was built sometime in the 1920s and has an interesting shape. I think it may have been a W H Smith at some point, but really not sure.

Silver Knight Garage

This is a locally listed garage from the 1920s that is still in use. I love how its shape utilises the corner plot it is based on.

Former Rex Cinema

This Art Deco building has had a lot of different uses over the years, first as St Patrick’s church hall, and then as a cinema called The Rex. It is now the Walsall Dojo Karate centre.

Central Hall

This interesting building was built in the 19th Century, but a new frontage was added in the mid 1920s. You can still see its original frontage behind the building, something that I think makes this a really interesting building.

Interesting Moderne Building – no details

Love the porthole style windows and it certainly follows the rule of 3, but other than that I have no details of this building, which I assume was always used for commercial use rather than residential.

The building next door has the Roman numerals showing it was built in 1925.

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