Monument record 1160/0/139 - Top of the Town, Great Russell Street

Also known as Talk of the Town Nightclub and The Fanciers Club. Top of the Town Nightclub was originally a Working Men's Club established in 1896. The Pigeon Fanciers Club, as it was originally known, stood on a site near the bus station, but was compulsorily purchased in the mid 1970's when the club moved onto the present site. The new club, designed by J. Roscoe Milne Partnership, was erected in 1977 and was used as a working men's club until the 1980s when it became a nightclub known as Top of the Town. The nightclub closed in 1991 and the building was demolished in 2008. The club's design was intended to brighten up the relatively bleak surroundings and to function as a social club with a lounge bar, games room, snack bar, and multi level concert room. It was built of two storeys and basement and was constructed of a steel and concrete frame, infilled with breeze blocks and covered with glass reinforced plastic (GRP) panels. Red engineering brick was used for the plinth, stairtower and entrances. The plan was roughly figure of eight with the lounge and games room on the south side, and the bars and concert room on the north side. The entrances were in the middle and there was split level flooring throughout. When the club was refurbished and became a nightclub much of the 1970s interior was lost when false ceilings were inserted with three-dimentional plasterwork in the form of fruit and shells, and medieval battle scenes. Demolished in 2008

{1} CONTEXT
The Top of the Town Club has been derelict for several years and the Northampton Chronicle and Echo newspaper, which occupies an adjacent building, has run a long-standing campaign for redevelopment of the site. An outline planning application for demolition of the club and replacement with a four-storey office and residential building (07/0175/OUTWNN) was refused by West Northamptonshire Development Corporation in October 2007, but allowed on appeal by the Planning Inspectorate in March 2008. In view of the appeal result, WNDC granted consent for a slightly revised application (07/0425/OUTWNN) on 22 May 2008. The spot-listing application was submitted in light of the imminent demolition of the building. Stripping off works had already commenced at the time of our inspection. The club is not in a Conservation Area and there are no listed buildings in the immediate vicinity.

HISTORY
The Pigeon Fanciers Club was established in Northampton in 1896 as a working men's club for those interested in the sport of pigeon racing. The club's premises originally stood on a site near the bus station, but that building was compulsorily purchased and demolished in the mid 1970s for a redevelopment which never happened. Alternative land was provided on the site of a row of demolished terraced houses in Great Russell Street, and a new club building was erected in 1977, to the designs of the J. Roscoe Milne Partnership. Because of the bleakness of the surroundings, the building was designed to be colourful and provide its own interest. It essentially functioned as a social club, with a lounge and bars, games room for darts and billiards, snack bar, and multi-level concert room with capacity for 350 people. The new building was popular with younger members who consumed some 500 gallons of ale per week on the premises; however some of the older club members opted to frequent a rival working men's club of more traditional design across the road, also designed by the same architects (converted into The Soundhaus club in 1996). The Fanciers working men's club became a nightclub known as Top of the Town at some stage in the 1980s. It closed its doors in 1991.

DESCRIPTION
A clubhouse of two storeys plus basement. It is constructed of a steel and concrete frame, infilled with breeze blocks and covered with GRP (glass reinforced plastic) panels. Red engineering brick was used for the plinth, stairtower and entrances. The plan is roughly of a figure 8, with the lounge and games room on the south side, the bars and concert room on the north side, and the entrances in the narrow part in the middle. Some of the GRP panels have inset ventilation louvres and portholes. They were originally coloured fawn, brown and chrome yellow, but the brown panels have been over-painted a light blue. The GRP cladding has weathered very badly in the thirty-odd years since it was built, and does not look attractive. At the time of inspection a large number of the panels had been removed, exposing the poor quality of the structure underneath, with its breeze block infill. The entrance on Great Russell Street has been unsympathetically altered, with the addition of an enclosed porch with brick base and metal grille.

INTERIOR: Contemporary photographs in Building Design of 1977 and the Architects' Journal of 1978 show interiors with bold geometric patterns and high quality finishes, such as Hessian and velvet wall coverings and brown and ginger lino on the floors. Although the plan form with its numerous split levels is still recognisable, none of the 1970s fixtures and fittings have survived. There are fragments of plastic floor covering on the stairs and some exposed steel girders in the concert room, but the rest of the interior appears to have been entirely revamped in the 1980s, presumably when the building ceased to be a working men's club. There are now mirror tiles behind the bars and false ceilings inserted under the pre-cast concrete ones. The rooms formerly occupied by the lounge and games room have false ceilings with three-dimensional plasterwork in the form of fruit and shells, and one has a plaster frieze depicting medieval battle scenes.

ASSESSMENT
The criteria for selecting buildings for listing, as set out in CLG Circular 01/2007, are special architectural interest and/or special historic interest. After 1840, because of the greatly increased number of buildings erected and the much larger numbers that have survived, progressively greater selection is necessary; buildings of less than 30 years old are normally listed only if they are of outstanding quality and under threat. The Top of the Town Club is 31 years old and therefore just falls within the band of progressively greater selection.

The Fanciers Club, as it was originally known, was built as a piece of fun; a blown-up example of 1970s product design, intended to lighten up an otherwise unprepossessing landscape. The Architects' Journal commented: 'While one must be thankful that planners prevent such buildings proliferating in historic parts of our cities, they are a lively and apparently appreciated addition to more drab and blighted neighbourhoods.' The colourful attributes of the building seem to have been successful initially, but the brown panels went out of fashion later and were painted over. There were complaints about the amount of stairs and multi levels, and in the end the working life of the building was short-lived - it was only open for 14 years. While there is interest in the design of the building as a reflection of 1970s style and culture, much of that interest has been eroded and ultimately the building has not stood the test of time. It has suffered unattractive alterations, the GRP panels have weathered badly, and the 1970s interiors have been entirely stripped. The recent removal of some of the GRP panels has exposed the poor quality of the construction.

In assessing the degree of innovation in the use of GRP in this building, Lyall's review in The State of British Architecture of 1980 is illuminating. He cites examples where GRP has been used in a structural manner, as in Pierre Botschi's sports pavilion at Bletchley and prototype houses in Milton Keynes (1973/1976), and Fitch and Company's Vanessa Redgrave Nursery School in Hammersmith (1972). By contrast he cites the Northampton Fanciers' Club as an example where the problems of fire regulations and cost of materials have relegated GRP to the role of cladding. Another interesting comparison is the Branksome Conference Centre in Haslemere, Surrey, listed at Grade II* (UID 448995). This former country house of 1901 by EJ May has a GRP and glass classroom wing of 1971-2 by James Stirling. Amongst the other reasons for designation, the list description states that it is 'also important in the development of GRP as a sophisticated building material in England, for it is the major building by a major architect to be built in GRP in Britain. The principal spaces are richly designed, and survive virtually unaltered.' The former Fanciers Club in Northampton, by comparison, does not display sophistication in the use of GRP; it is later; it cannot be described as richly designed; and it has been altered. The architects, J. Roscoe Milne Partnership, are not a major firm and do not have any other listed buildings to their name.

In conclusion, while the Top of the Town Club has anecdotal historic interest as an exemplar of 1970s design, it is not of sufficient quality and has been too altered to merit listing.

<1> ENGISH HERITAGE, English Heritage Listing File (Report). SNN111579.

Record last edited

Feb 17 2025 6:58PM