Richards Art Gallery and Museum is a Grade II listed building in the Sandwell local planning authority area, England. Art gallery.
Richards Art Gallery and Museum
- WRENN ID
- small-grate-elder
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Sandwell
- Constituency
- Tipton and Wednesbury MP: Antonia Bance (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Type
- Art gallery
- Address
- Richards Art Gallery and Museum, Holyhead Road
- OS grid reference
- SO 986 947
- Coordinates
- 52.5505, -2.02207
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Richards Art Gallery and Museum is an art gallery built in 1890 by Wood and Kendrick. The building is constructed of red brick and terra cotta and features a symmetrical design with two storeys. The upper storey is blind and has two bays on each side of the entrance, which are separated by pilasters. Above the main cornice, there is a balustrade with piers between the bays that carry urns. A second cornice is located above the tall lower storey.
On the ground floor, there are timber cross-windows, each topped with a semi-circular pediment that springs from a moulded band. These windows feature moulded decorations, including a cartouche. The first floor has terra cotta panels with relief portraits of notable figures: St Christopher Wren, Sir Joshua Reynolds, John Flaxman, and Sir Isaac Newton. Above the doorway, there are two niches separated by a pilaster, containing busts of William Lloyd, Chairman of the Art Gallery Committee, and Mayor Williams.
The main cornice features a centerpiece with a shield of arms and a motto below a pediment. The doorway has an elliptical arch and is flanked by attached octagonal turrets with pinnacles. The interior includes a stone Imperial stair with cast iron balusters.
Local climate
Richards Art Gallery and Museum receives an average of 800 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 56% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 75% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 38 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 71% of listed buildings. Of these, 19 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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