Smethwick (ˈsmɛðᵻk) is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire and then Worcestershire before being placed into then West Midlands County.
In 2019, the ward of Smethwick had an estimated population of 15,246, while the wider built-up area subdivision has a population of 53,653.
It was suggested that the name Smethwick meant "smiths' place of work", but a more recent interpretation has suggested the name means "the settlement on the smooth land". Smethwick was recorded in the Domesday Book as Smedeuuich, the d in this spelling being the Anglo-Saxon letter eth. Until the end of the 18th century it was an outlying hamlet of the south Staffordshire village of Harborne. Harborne became part of the county borough of Birmingham and thus transferred from Staffordshire to Warwickshire in 1891, leaving Smethwick in the County of Staffordshire.
The world's oldest working engine, the Smethwick Engine, made by Boulton & Watt, originally stood near Bridge Street, Smethwick. It is now at Thinktank, the new science museum in Birmingham.
One notable company was The London Works, manufacturing base of the Fox Henderson Company which made the cast-iron framework for the Crystal Palace. This was founded by Charles Fox, whose inventions included the first patented railway points. His notable employees included William Siemens, the notable mechanical and electrical engineer. The company was bankrupted in 1855 by the failure of an overseas railway to pay for work done. The site was later used by the GKN company. In 2015 the site was being cleared to build the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital which aims to combine the Sandwell General Hospital at West Bromwich and City Hospital, Dudley Road. Work at the site later came to a standstill because of a crisis in the construction industry.