ARCADES PROJECT

The Victorian Arcade in Walsall, just north west of Birmingham, was built in 1896, though it was originally known locally just as The Arcade, and then Digbeth Arcade.

It has three entrances and is in the form of a T, the most impressive facade being on Bradford Street, which has a first floor verandah with decorative ironwork railings looking down on this main shopping street. The other feature is the glass dome above the crux of that T, though I was told that the glass all fell in during a hurricane a few years ago, so the windows are not original, even if the structure is.

Around the sides of this domed roof are stained-glass windows showing the Walsall coat of arms, and there is an impressive looking window which must be in a rather grand first floor room, though you’d need to be on the inside the see the stained-glass colouring, I think.

The vaulted glass ceiling which runs the length of both arms of the T is supported by decorated ironwork, and there are moulded features in the columns and supports that run along the arcade. And don’t miss the old clock on its own iron frame, still telling the time, and looking as if it might have been here since the start.

The arcade is doing well in terms of occupancy rate, with a big variety of businesses, though the fishmonger (who has probably been here longest) said the footfall is not as great as it was once upon a time (I told him this arcade has more footfall than many others I have visited). There are lots of classic arcade independent businesses: sweet shop, bakery, beauty, nails, barbers, even dry cleaners and alterations; there are the really old trades you don’t see so often these days (except perhaps on market stalls) like the fishmongers, the butcher, the clock shop and the formal wear shop; and there are the businesses reflecting the changing demographics of a place like Walsall: with the Afro hair salon, the south Asian clothes boutique, the Chinese medicine centre, and the psychic healer, who sadly was not open on the day I visited, so I couldn’t go in for an appointment or to ask about his own family past, and where they had originated from.

My pick of the arcade’s past

Among early tenants of the Arcade in Walsall was an optician, William Comer. His adverts referred to his work for West Bromwich Hospital, he was a ‘doubly qualified refractionist’ and used the ‘latest scientific apparatus.’ Among his services was fitting artificial eyes – his company was still trading into the 1970s, though by then it had begun to specialise in photograhic equipment. Coal miners were the target for care by Mr Comer (D.B.O.A., F.S.M.G.),who reckoned to work with cases of nystagnus (involuntary eye movements), to which miners were apparently prone. When Mr Comer died suddenly in January 1924, there was an enormous funeral, with some 18 carriages forming the cortege. But the business kept going, still in his name, though it gradually evolved to Philips and Comer, and finally Philips, who moved over to photographic supplies.

In 1904 Madame Eugene was charged with fortune-telling from her Shilling Bazaar in the arcade. At times there were as many as 30 women and girls queueing up down the arcade to have their palms read. Her lawyer successfully argued in court that it was purely demand from the public that led her to do palmistry; her actual ‘scientific’ qualifications were in phrenology. She was found guilty and promised to stop fortune telling, but got away with just paying court costs, thanks to her lawyer’s intervention.

During World War 1, the manager of the toy shop in the arcade was prosecuted under the Defence of the Realm Act for selling an air gun to a boy without permission from the military authorities. His defence argued that they were just toy guns, but the prosecution successfully retorted that these guns could kill a human if misused. The Red Cross also had offices upstairs with the balcony during WW1, and towards the end of the war, they organised a collection of silver to raise money for Red Cross work, acknowledging that most items would be melted down for silver bullion, but any valuable items might be sold off.

In the 1960s the ‘Casino’ Club upstairs became a popular music venue, with big stars like the Moody Blues and Georgie Fame among the celebrities playing Walsall in those days. The venue also played host to lots of local club presentations, and even a darts tournament one year.

Sources for the above stories www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk, and specifically: 1) Cannock Chase Courier, 5 May 1900; Staffordshire Advertiser, 9 February 1924 – British Library Board; 2) Staffordshire Advertiser, 26 November 1904 – British Library Board; 3) Birmingham Daily Post, 21 June 1917, Reach plc; Walsall Observer, 29 June 1918, Reach plc; 4) Walsall Observer, 18 December 1969, Reach plc.

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?

My favourite shop in the arcade

I loved the clock shop and the fishmongers, so I popped in and chatted to both the gents running these businesses. Couldn’t resist taking home some fresh fish, too.

Is there a website for this arcade?

Not that I can see, nor any social media pages for the arcade itself, though some of the businesses are active on social media. However, there is a Wikipedia page for Walsall’s Victorian Arcade.