Rare chance to build three houses on Victorian school site in West Bromwich

A rare chance to build three family homes on a former Victorian school site is coming up at Bond Wolfe Auctions’ first auction on 13 March in Birmingham.

Developers are expected to compete for the residential development opportunity at Earl Street in West Bromwich that was once occupied by the Guns Village Primary School, dating back to 1878.

With a guide price* of £120,000, the cleared rectangular-shaped site has direct access from Earl Street and has previous planning consent to build three town houses, each with three bedrooms.

Gurpreet Bassi, chief executive of Bond Wolfe Auctions, said: “This is a great opportunity for a developer to build what could become popular and profitable homes on Earls Street, which is just off the main West Bromwich High Street.

“The site lies within very close proximity to local shops, transport links and other amenities and is situated among existing homes in what is a predominantly residential area.”

The school was originally named Guns Village because of the area’s historic links to the production of gun components in West Bromwich, although that was more than 100 years ago.

The buildings were closed and later demolished in the late-2000s to make way for new developments, with a replacement school built at Hanbury Road.

The unusual lot is one of 119 in the catalogue for Bond Wolfe Auctions first auction on 13 March, which will be the largest auction held in the Midlands for six months.

It’s featuring a diverse range of properties with guide prices ranging from £5,000 to £2.6 million and covering a wide geographical area including London.

Mr Bassi added: “Our first auction has really excited the market and we’re looking forward to a packed auction room at Villa Park on Wednesday 13 March.”

Bond Wolfe Auctions was launched in early 2019 by chief executive Gurpreet Bassi and managing director Ian Tudor who previously were the heads of residential and commercial auctions respectively at the Bigwood auctions business.

The first auction will start at 10.30am on Wednesday 13 March at Villa Park, Birmingham, and the team has already started taking entries for the second auction of 2019 on Thursday 9 May.

* Each property is subject to a reserve price which may be different from the guide price.