Bringing a refreshed market offering to West Bromwich High Street

Client
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
Location
West Bromwich
RIBA Work Stage
0-6
Role
  • Architect
  • CDM Principal Designer
  • BR Principal Designer
  • Lead Designer
Team
west bromwich market artist impression
completed market high street

As the first flagship project of Sandwell Council’s West Bromwich Town Centre Masterplan, the Indoor Market has been relocated to the High Street, to kick-start regeneration of the town.  Providing a modernised offering, the market has been redeveloped with a mix of retail, food stalls and food kitchens, to attract more visitors to the area.  

The original West Bromwich Indoor Market was built in the 1970s and was located at the back of Kings Square Shopping Centre, hidden from the high street and the busy outdoor market. Because of this, within recent years, the market had fallen into decline and was only at 35% occupancy. The building was in poor condition and was heading towards becoming uninhabitable.

 

The relocation and redevelopment project for a new West Bromwich Indoor Market aimed to bring the market to a new prominent location on the high street, into a newly refurbished and fit-for-purpose building. This project forms the beginning of the 2022 West Bromwich Town Centre Masterplan proposals to pull the town out of a state of decline.

 

Three empty high-street retail units were identified as an ideal location for the market, combining them into one large area to provide space for the current traders, as well as new independent businesses.

APEC developed the project based on the brief provided by Market Curators, following their community engagement and the production of a financial business plan. To diversify to new audiences and protect the future of the business, the new market includes retail units, food retail units and hot food takeaway kitchens, with seating within a flexible event space.

 

The Ground Floor consisted of the design of 21 no. non-food stalls, 7 no. food stalls, 4 no. kitchens, seating area, public WCs and back of house areas (including trader storage and loading area).  The First Floor gave a generous space for future co-working studios and market management spaces, including an office and staff kitchen.

 

The opening of the Market proved to be very popular, with new and old market traders renting units. It even included the return of the famous Firkins Bakery, started in West Bromwich in 1870.

west brom market food hall
“

When I first walked in, I thought it was marvellous, to be honest, and 100 per cent better than the previous indoor market, so this is a proper regeneration for the people of Sandwell and another part of the Sandwell story... This market is going to regenerate the High Street as we're going to get people in and have a good footfall up and down the High Street, so it's going to be a whole new chapter for West Bromwich.

Councillor Kerrie CarmichaelSandwell MBC Council Leader
“

It's a fantastic, lovely and modern facility with plenty of choice for people to come in, have a coffee and something to eat, sit down and enjoy themselves in a nice environment. It's very different to the old market, which was built in 1973 and was so antiquated, so we needed a change and this is much better and was desperately needed because this part of the town has been forgotten about.

Dave GriffithsMarket Trader