Sandwell College Lecture Room

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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