Conservationists are locked in a battle to save the remaining piece of a Victorian workhouse and turn it into a monument to the thousands of destitute people who were condemned to a lifetime of hard labour there.

The workhouse entrance, known as the Archway of Tears, is still standing on the City Hospital site in Dudley Road, but stands unloved, surrounded by overgrown bushes and untidy metal fencing and the hospital car park.

But with the hospital set to relocate to a new super hospital at Smethwick in 2015 conservationists are worried that the building could be demolished at the hands of developers unless something is done to save it.

Elizabeth Perkins, of the Birmingham Conservation Trust, said that there is no legal protection for the archway even though she is convinced it has architectural and historic merit – particularly the detail on the Archway itself

She said: “The Government placed a moratorium on listing NHS owned buildings to encourage redevelopment of hospitals. I have no doubt that otherwise there is a case for English Heritage to list the workhouse.”

The trust is securing funding for a survey to find out how much restoration might cost and what uses the building could be put to and has been involved in discussions with the hospital.

Favourite among campaigners is a workhouse museum to show how Birmingham’s paupers were treated.

Earlier surveys by the City Hospital found that it could cost £1 million to make the building safe, before any restoration work was accounted for.

It was built in 1852 for the city’s destitute.

Historian Carl Chinn said: “It was called the Archway of Tears because families who entered them were separated and may only see each other once a fortnight. People who went through that arch suffered terrible hardships and ended up in pauper’s graves.”