<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"></div><div dir="ltr">Hi, Don,</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">That’s sad news but I’m also amazed it has lasted so long. If it has Grades 1 or 2 Listed Building status, this could save it from the wrecking ball - but for what other purposes? It was opened in 1932 ish by the Duke of Gloucester with John Black and R.W. Maudslay present. One of the last occasions when Maudslay put in a public appearance before he died.</div><div dir="ltr">I’ve been inside it on many occasions, though many years ago, and it’s a large building for a social club. There are bars, a theatre, several lounge areas, changing rooms and showers. In its heyday, it had up to 10,000 people (employees) using it daily at lunchtimes and in the evenings but there’s no factory there now, just a business park and the adjoining land in the form of football, rugby and tennis courts have gone too. But these days, people have different ideas for their leisure. Fifty plus years ago, the club would have seen hundreds of people in the evenings and at weekends. There were sing-songs, drama groups, musical events, variety shows, employee children events, football, rugby and tennis events and all floated off on an ocean of draught beer from the Ansells and Flowers breweries. We all called that place “the gluepot” but why, I never did find out.</div><div dir="ltr">The TR Register suggestion for the clubs to buy it as an HQ is a bit serendipity IMHO. The site itself has a very high value as building land and the price to buy is likely far more than the UK clubs could cobble together to buy it. And having bought it, what could anyone do with it as it’s currently structured? It needs heating and maintaining and when I last saw it, it looks and is very drab and undeniably a high profile boozer of the 1930s Industrial Age - and that age has now gone. I’d be sad to see it go but I think it has long served its purpose and can’t really be used or updated for more current and popular activities without a massive investment with highly questionable outcomes in terms of likely profitability and capital returns.</div><div dir="ltr">The last surviving building of the former Standard Motor Company looks as though it’s come to the end of the road in the same way that all the other company buildings that it looked out upon, went the same way in the late 1990s.</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Jonmac</div><div dir="ltr"><br>On 18 Jun 2026, at 18:26, Don Hiscock <<a href="mailto:don.hiscock@gmail.com">don.hiscock@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">Posted toddy on the TR Register (UK) forum. I don’t know more than this. Any insights you can share with our group, Jonmac?</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><img src="cid:ii_mqjrroal0" alt="IMG_7513.png" width="476" height="357"><br></div></div>
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