Abandoned West Midlands: Bowling Club & Cannabis Farm Birmingham

Once a clubhouse for a local Bowling Club, this building has since been used as a cannabis farm. Members had access to a bowling green, two full-size snooker tables, a darts board and two TV screens. The clubhouse served its members and community with many events throughout its life. From exploring the building, it also seems there was accomodation on the site. Over time member numbers reduced and the club was increasingly underused, leading to its life as a sports and social club coming to an end in 2018. However, the building gained a new purpose after its abandonment.

In February 2021 police raided the derelict building, which lies around seven miles outside of Birmingham city centre. Inside they found a cannabis factory with 400 plants valued at around £400,000. No one was arrested in connection with this discovery, and the remnants of this illicit enterprise still remain in the building today.

Signs of the building’s two lives lie intermingled, with fertiliser bottles and destroyed cannabis plants strewn between old raffle tickets and bowls championship certificates. Hidden amongst the insulation and piping installed for growing weed, old bottles and pint glasses still remain as a legacy to the club’s past.

In 2021 plans were submitted for the site to be developed into nine apartments.