DUDLEY Museum and Art Gallery has been given Grade II listed status by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

The listing comes on the advice of Historic England and gives the historic redbrick building greater protection and recognition.

Owned by Dudley Council, the building was originally a free library, art gallery and art school when it opened in 1884.

The art school was very popular and in 1920, after a chance meeting at the art gallery with Dudley Art School principal Ivo Shaw, the painter Percy Shakespeare (1906–1943) began his studies.

The school recognised his talent for figure drawing and portraits and waived his fees.

Shakespeare, who lived in Kate’s Hill and was the fourth of eight children, went on to exhibit at Royal Academy and Paris Salon on numerous occasions.

Tragically, he was killed in a bomb explosion in Brighton in 1943, aged 37. His former mentor Ivo Shaw called him “the best painter in oils the school had produced”.

In recent years there has been increased interest in his paintings.

In January 2022, a Blue Plaque was unveiled on the façade of the building commemorating his life and work.

The art school closed in 1966 and the building was used solely as a museum and gallery from then on.

Its important geological collection inspired artwork, which was added to the former reading room windows in 1992. Etched geological images chart the history of evolution via various fossil references including Dudley’s famous Crinoid, along with a quotation from Salvador Dali: “the rocks of the imagination still remain”.

On the eastern corner of the building a set of meteorological instruments were added in 1927 - donated by James Smellie to commemorate his wife, the Mayoress of Dudley for 1925-26.

The museum eventually closed to the public in 2016 and its collections were moved to Dudley Archives and Local History Centre.

Rachel Williams, Historic England listing adviser, said: “Dudley’s former museum and gallery is an impressive building of great architectural merit. There are details and features in the surviving fabric, such as the Dudley Town coat of arms on the building and references to Dudley Castle in the stained glass windows, that tell the stories of social, artistic and scientific education in the town, and reference local places and traditions.”

Councillor Simon Phipps, Dudley Council’s cabinet member for regeneration and enterprise, said: “We are delighted to have yet another Grade II listing in the town centre. “Although the newly listed building is currently unoccupied, we are in exciting talks with third parties for it to be repurposed and brought back into active use.

“The building also features in our recently launched architectural heritage trail and a behind the doors online tour is available at www.dudleyheritageopendays.org.uk.”

Tim Bridges, conservation advisor at The Victorian Society which applied for the building to be listed, said the society was also “delighted” at the news and he added: “As the conservation adviser for the West Midlands, I am particularly pleased that all our good work has paid off, and that the community in and around Dudley will have a magnificent Victorian building to enjoy, in new ways, into the future for many generations to come.”