Padel court plans for former printworks

A planning application has been submitted asking for permission to convert the former Express and Star printing works in Tower Street, Wolverhampton, into a new seven-court Wolves Padel Centre.

The ground floor and former printing room of the city’s historic Express and Star offices, which staff left in 2023 after more than 140 years, would be converted into three doubles courts and two singles courts.

The newspaper’s former mailroom would be converted into another doubles court according to the application submitted to City of Wolverhampton Council. 

The proposed opening hours are 6am to midnight daily. 

A statement included with the application said: “The proposal converts a redundant, purpose-built newspaper press hall in Wolverhampton city centre into a seven-court indoor padel centre. 

“It is a change of use accommodated wholly within the existing building, requiring no demolition, no extension and no alteration to the external fabric other than the replacement of an existing fascia sign in its existing position. 

“The scheme is a rational and efficient response to the building it occupies. 

“The very characteristics that make the former press hall difficult to re-let for industrial or storage purposes — its scale, its clear spans and its double-height volumes — are exactly what an indoor racket sport requires.

“The design retains those volumes legible and open, places ancillary accommodation in the smaller cellular spaces at the perimeter, and uses free-standing, demountable court structures so that every intervention is reversible. 

“It delivers substantial public benefit in the form of new sporting provision, new employment, evening and weekend activity in the city centre, and the safeguarding of a locally listed building through active use, without harm to any interest of acknowledged importance.”

A move to open a climbing centre in a newspaper’s former press room was approved by the council in 2025.

Plans to convert other parts of the former newspaper headquarters into flats were also backed by council planners last year.