ARCADES PROJECT

Fountain Arcade in Dudley has recently benefited from funding to spruce up its two frontages, one with red brick and stone features and the other a much clearer art deco style façade with the name and the year it was built – 1925 – standing clear for all to see.

These are the best features of this 1920s arcade, along with some attractive stained-glass windows above one of the entrance doors and in some of the older-looking shops like the florist and butcher.

Almost 100 years on from its opening day, though, it’s some way from having the ‘irresistible charm’ the local newspaper saw it as having back then. The ironwork supports to the glass ceiling are still in place, though the glass is now reinforced and definitely not original.

The café is a warm, buzzing hub of the local community, and there are some characterful shops like the florist and the butcher’s, along with a wig shop. There are also 2^nd hand books, 2^nd hand clothes, a DVD and vinyl shop with t-shirts from rock bands old and new, a tailor, brow bar and shoe repair shop. The mobile phone and vaping shop is definitely a 21^st century addition.

My pick of the arcade’s past

Thomas Tanfield was the civic elder who had this arcade built. He had been Mayor of Dudley from 1922-24, and on the board of the local Building Society as well as managing a bank branch for 20 years. He was also active in the Temperance movement and ran a stationery shop, whose shop front was taken away to make way for the arcade building.

In 1938 the butcher in the arcade had to go through the courts on a charge of trying to sell meat that was unfit for human consumption. There was no denying that the pig’s offal was infected with TB and that it was in the shop, but the butcher argued that he would have checked for the quality of the meat before selling it and would not have sold an infected product. Local magistrates eventually dismissed the charge.

In May 1981, the arcade was where an escaped prisoner was caught. He had got away from guards while being transferred from the court where he had just been sentenced to jail, and ran through the centre of Dudley before being caught in the arcade.

Sources for all the above stories from www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk and specifically: 1) Dudley Chronicle, 30 August 1934 – Reach plc; 2) Evening Despatch, 13 May 1938 – Reach plc; 3) Express & Star Wolverhampton, 6 May 1981 – Midland News Association.

What memories do you have of visits in years gone by?

Have you got any good stories to add on the past of this arcade?

What’s your favourite shop in the arcade today?

Have you seen this arcade in any films or books?

Is there a website for this arcade?

No website for the arcade as such. A Facebook page exists but has been inactive since 2021. Individual businesses in the arcade do have an online presence.