The history of the Service

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Many thanks to the 'Wolverhampton History and Heritage Society' for letting us use this information. To find out more about Wolverhampton visit their site by following this link.

The listing calls this building the College of Adult Education. It was built for educational purposes and has always been in educational use but the nature of what went on in it, and its official name, has changed from time to time. People call the building, and whatever the current institution is, "Old Hall Street". In recent decades its mainly part-time courses, both vocational and recreational, have been of great importance to the city and well supported. The house to the far right was part of the original building and is said to have been the caretaker's house. Perhaps it was really the headmaster's or principal's house.

The listing says that it "a good, well proportioned example". Note the front wall, which reflects the ground floor windows.

This town centre site is lined with trees (London Planes) - which is remarkable and very nice (but makes getting a decent photo of the building very difficult.) In about 2004 it was resurfaced and the street furniture altered - to excellent effect with minimal cost and effort.

The Old Hall was originally the moated stately home of the Leveson family, roughly on the site of this building; it later became one of Wolverhampton's largest japanning works. In the square opposite this building the paving contains markers of its extent.

The island block which this road almost bisects is now designated as an educational and cultural quarter and it is all being revamped, with this building as pretty much the centrepiece. Old Hall Street will form one axis and the other will be through a passageway under the new Wolverhampton College city centre campus, past this building and then through the new square. It will face the new extension to the central library.