South Staffordshire College
New Campus Building Completes
25 February 2026
Our scheme for South Staffordshire College in the historic heart of Tamworth has completed. The project creates an open and inclusive home for further education while strengthening connections between the college and the town centre.
The design is rooted in a detailed study of Tamworth’s historic urban grain, reintroducing patterns of scale, rhythm and permeability that were lost during 1960s redevelopment.
The building’s location presented an opportunity to reanimate St Editha’s Square. A more civic frontage engages directly with the square through a series of playful openings reflecting the vocational spaces behind, while the framed north façade of general teaching spaces references the architectural rhythm of historic burgage plots that once defined the area.
The project was shaped by how students and staff actually learn, move and spend time together. By consolidating several outdated facilities into a single, well-connected town-centre building, it creates a richer, more purposeful environment for further education.
The building’s three-part organisation reflects distinct learning needs: flexible general teaching spaces in the north wing; community-facing vocational training rooms, including the hairdressing salon and café, fronting the market square; and a more robust industrial block at the rear accommodating construction and automotive courses. Each part has its own character, suited to the activities within.
Linking them is a generous central student space lit by a pair of four-storey lightwells. This hub creates clear visual connections to specialist teaching departments and provides flexible informal areas for student meetings, workspace and events.
South Staffordshire College’s new Tamworth campus would not exist without determined, collaborative partnership. Bringing together the college, Tamworth Borough Council, Peter Marsh Consulting, Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt and multiple funding bodies, the project required sustained alignment across competing priorities, complex negotiations and a creative approach to estate strategy.
The scheme emerged from a broader property review in which the college, working closely with Peter Marsh Consulting, identified an opportunity to sell one existing site for much-needed housing, fund a new town-centre campus and simultaneously contribute to the council’s regeneration masterplan. This approach unlocked funding from Homes England, the Future High Streets Fund and the Department for Education.
The resulting building is one that users value deeply.
“The new college is more than a building – it’s a bold investment in the future of Tamworth and the wider region. We’ve created a space where ambition meets opportunity, and where learners of all ages can gain the skills, they need to thrive in a fast-changing economy.”
Claire Boliver, Chief Executive and Principal of South Staffordshire College