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Mount Pleasant, BILSTON, WV14 7LS

These late nineteenth century(?) houses are in Mount Pleasant, south-west of the Library and Craft Gallery.

British Electric Traction Company motif in terracotta on the main facade. Called 'Magnet and Wheel", the magnet consists of a length of special tramway rail bent into the form of a horseshoe magnet. Between the two poles a tramcar wheel represents the tramway vehicles as well as the rotating armature of an electric motor or dynamo, creating the electric sparks in the background. Most commonly found as a transfer on tramcars or on letterheads, etc., this 3-D representation is unusual and a fine survivor. The odd shape of the wheel from this angle is corrected when seen face-on http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2813087 .

The Sikh Gurudwara occupies the transformer station for the Wolverhampton and District Tramways built in 1902. Wolverhampton's Sikh community representing 9% of the residents first arrived in the 1960s and is the fourth largest in England and Wales.

This building (c1902) 32 Mount Pleasant is adjacent to the former offices of the Wolverhampton District Electric Tramways Ltd and used to house the transformer station providing power for the trams. It has been a temple for some time, but now sports the blue and red colours of the independent Bilston Community College (as does the Tramways Office). I am not quite certain of the status of this college, founded in 2008 and using the same name as the discredited further education college closed and taken over by Wolverhampton's Wulfrun (now City of Wolverhampton) College in 1999.

This is 34 Mount Pleasant (Prospect House), the former offices of the Wolverhampton District Electric Tramways Ltd. The building is Grade II listed and was built in 1902. WDET electrified the existing horse tramway routes in the area. The site comprised the offices, a transformer station (the existing but much altered building adjacent), and the repair and paint shops. The depot was converted for the use of trolleybuses 1928-1930, finally closing in 1965. At some time after that Don Everall's Coach Company used the facilities. Please see http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2813097 for more detailed information. The brick and terracotta has been cleaned recently (2008?) and both buildings sport the red and blue paint colours of Bilston Community College. I am not quite certain of the status of this college, founded in 2008 and using the same name as the discredited further education college closed and taken over by Wolverhampton's Wulfrun (now City of Wolverhampton) College in 1999.

The WDET initials in terracotta on the main facade.

The main facade on Mount Pleasant.

The offices and what was originally the electrical substation.

The view of the former Theatre Royal on the corner of Mount Pleasant and Mountford Lane. The Theatre opened in Oct 1902 and closed in May 1957 and was demolished in 1961.