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Listing: Locally listed November 2001. Mid
19th century terrace in landmark position. Some later shop fronts.
Some of the first buildings to be built in Chapel Ash.
Comment: These may have been
some of the first buildings in Chapel Ash but it should be
made clear that Chapel Ash is a very old road, leading to
Tettenhall and beyond, and had a scatter of buildings on it from
early times. We are not sure what the terrace was
originally built for - housing or offices - but would guess,
from the layout of the stairways to the upper floors, that it
was mainly offices with shops under. Certainly Chapel Ash
became a shopping centre in its own right. Although older
residents still assert that it was a large and high class
shopping centre, better in all respects than the city centre( to
the left above), the photographic evidence does not really bear
this out. It was mainly a local shopping centre -
doubtless a good one, with good local shops, and classier than
Leicester Square (to the right above). In the second half
of the 20th century it deteriorated somewhat with a lot of
vacancies in the shops and the standard of maintenance leaving a
lot to be desired. But about 2000 things started to look
up and in due course the city council carried out a streetscape
improvement scheme, with some success. But now
(2005) there are again complaints that it is going down hill
again - though it looks all right to me. Its longer term
future will be much dependant on the effect of the large
redevelopment which Tesco (probably) will (possibly) carry out
between St. Marks and the Ring Road on an area which almost
backs on to the buildings shown here.
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