# Sandwell College, Smethwick, Birmingham – Nov ‘15



## Landie_Man (Nov 14, 2015)

Sandwell College, Smethwick, Birmingham – Nov ‘15

So I was incredibly late to this one! The what was once gorgeous and lovely has been turned to crap by a bunch of people who quite frankly this world could do with out. Wastes of spaces and wastes of mine and yours money. There we go, I digress. Visited with SouthSide after a whole day of pure fail in the City of Birmingham.

This place was superb a number of years ago but has suffered horribly and has little, but some redeeming features left. Some has been bulldozed.

It all started when The Chance family began running evening classes in 1846. The Science and Art studies took place at their glassworks in Spon Lane to benefit their workers. By 1852 an Education Institute was formed which ran for nearly two decades. 

Come 1885, most classes were being run in the evening at the higher grade school in Crocketts Lane. In 1910 ; neighbouring Smethwick Technical School was opened. This served as a Junior Technical School for young pupils during the day and a further education school for adults in the evenings. 

This became a Municipal College by 1927 and the name was changed to Chance College in 1945. A block of engineering and building workshops were opened in 1950 .Between 1952 and 1966 major extensions were built which enabled the college to accommodate 3,500 students. In 1968 the college was merged with Oldbury College of Further Education to form Warley College of Technology, with the buildings in Crocketts Lane (Chance Building) housing the main administrative centre of the new college and six of its eight departments.

The demise was on the horizon many years later and Sandwell College was closed in stages between 2011 and 2012 as relocation to a new state of the art campus in West Bromwich was on the cards. 
Many fires and vandalism has forced parts of the college to be demolished and what is left is in a hell of a state.

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More At:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/landie_man/albums/72157661142704586


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## krela (Nov 14, 2015)

Wow that really is looking worse for wear.


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## Sam Haltin (Nov 14, 2015)

Some nice features in this building a shame its looking in a sorry state.


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## HughieD (Nov 14, 2015)

Fantastic stuff there Landie man....


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## flyboys90 (Nov 14, 2015)

It's a mess but you've got some cracking shots here,especially the surviving architectural features.


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## Last hope. (Dec 21, 2015)

my mum was a former student here so I've looked this one up a few times... Hard to gt into?


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## krela (Dec 21, 2015)

Last hope. said:


> Hard to gt into?



We don't answer questions like this, in fact it's against the forum rules to ask.


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## L.E.D (Feb 6, 2016)

such a shame, lovely building


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## uklimey1234 (Feb 6, 2016)

Sad to see the old place in this condition, I did a BTEC HNC there in 1984 when it was Warley College, happy days.


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