The Public, West Bromwich - the lost public arts venue in Sandwell

The Public was a free public arts venue in West Bromwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell. It was this big modern pink building with unique art installations inside. I once caught the Midland Metro to West Bromwich in April 2011 to visit it. But it closed down years later and is now Central Sixth, West Bromwich. The Public opened in 2009 and closed in 2013.

The Public, West Bromwich

The Public was a multi-purpose venue and art gallery in West Bromwich, it opened in 2009 and closed by November 2013. The architect was Will Alsop. Construction started in 2003 and was completed in 2009. Although it partially opened in 2008. It was fully completed on all levels in 2010. It was a free art gallery. Various artists had their work displayed here.

My visit to The Public was at the beginning of April 2011, and had no issues taking photos inside of the building. It was the only time I ever went inside. As by the time came back to West Bromwich years later, it was now Central Sixth, West Bromwich (a Sixth Form College from Sandwell College). But there was also the Sandwell Arts Cafe (but the automatic doors were closed when I went past in 2017). Apparently the Sixth Form College merged with my old Sixth Form College (Cadbury College) in 2018 and the campus in West Bromwich is now known as Saint Michaels Sixth Form.

 

Panoramic of The Public during April 2011, taken from New Street / Cronehills Linkway. This would become part of New Square by 2013.

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Posters in the corner window including The Pink Floyd Show.

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LOVE ART

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Welcome to THE PUBLIC ENTRANCE FREE

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Gift shop - the lighting was pink all over.

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Content Pools by Lia & Miguel Carvalhais.

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This was also part of the Content Pools artwork. The light bubbles went all over these things.

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Flypad

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Wasn't sure at the time what you were supposed to do with Flypad. I would guess step on the square and touch Play on the touch screen.

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Local art exhibit. Looks like artists had created giant insects.

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Back down to the ground floor after getting a lift back down. Neon pink lights on the ceiling, curvy waves on the floor.

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Some kind of pink object I saw on the ground floor. The sculpture looked like it was made of tangled ropes.

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Out to the square at the back of The Public with these interesting looking shiny metal parts of the building.

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I would guess that there had been nothing like this in West Bromwich before or since.

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Entrance to The Public on the left. I would never go back in there ever again.

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The New Square shopping development would be built in 2012 and 2013 and would be in the area where those cars were in the distance.

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I went back to West Bromwich in July 2017 on The Big Sleuth bear hunt. After the bus from Bearwood / Warley I went to Dudley. And the next bus to West Bromwich for the last of the bears I wanted to see. By this point New Square had opened, and The Public was now Central Sixth West Bromwich.

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This Big Sleuth bear was called Picnic Time For Teddy Bears by the artist Cathy Simpson and the sponsor was The West Brom.

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This was now the Main Entrance to the Sandwell Arts Cafe, as well as to the Sixth Form College.

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It's a shame that The Public had to close to be replaced by Central Sixth. At the time it still looked "arty" with "imagine" and "create". In the Fab Lab.

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I last got the West Midlands Metro to West Bromwich Central in August 2019 to see the new Three Degrees statue in New Square (called The Celebration). So didn't get new photos of the former Public building. I did briefly pop into the square behind but was a dead end, then headed to Dartmouth Park for another look around, before catching a tram back into Birmingham. The shops and eateries here are near Queen's Square.

 

Photos taken by Elliott Brown.

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Birmingham We Are People with Passion award winner 2020