A campaign is to be launched to save Batley’s iconic former Variety Club.
It was revealed last week that the building – now the Frontier nightclub – could be demolished by developers.
The news shocked club-goers from the 1960s and 1970s who flocked to the down-at-heel mill town to see world stars such as Louis Armstrong, Shirley Bassey and Roy Orbison.
Now Mrs Maureen Prest, the former promotions and public relations officer for the club, has launched a bid to thwart the bulldozers.
She wants to petition English Heritage to put the club on its register of ‘listed’ buildings to save it from demolition.
Mrs Prest, who wrote a book on the late Variety Club founder James Corrigan, said while the building wasn’t architecturally important, it was part of the social fabric of the town.
“Before the Variety Club, Batley was a grimy mill town with little going for it,” she said.
“What James Corrigan did was turn drudgery to glitz and glamour.
“Looking back it was a remarkable piece of social engineering.”
Mrs Prest, of Birstall, wrote King of Clubs, the life story of Mr Corrigan who died aged 74 in December, 2000.
She recalled how Mr Corrigan – penniless when he bought the former sewage works site in Bradford Road and built the club – put Batley on the map.
“I remember when James went to America to speak to Louis Armstrong’s people and he reached for a map to show them where Batley was. But Batley wasn’t even on the map!”
Mrs Prest said: “Batley Variety Club is part of the fabric of the history of the town and should be saved.
“It would be tragic if the bulldozers were sent in.”
Mrs Prest has written to Batley and Spen Labour MP Mike Wood and wants to hear from anyone who supports her bid to have the building listed.
Mrs Prest, who has one of the golden keys from when the club was opened by the Bachelors in 1967, added: “The club wasn’t just good for Batley, it was a boost for the whole region.
“Local businesses benefited, from taxi firms to dress shops.
“James loved nothing better than seeing the girls from the mills rushing home to put curlers in their hair and coming out in their long dresses looking like princesses.
“It was social engineering gone mad.”
Developer Landmark Development Projects is looking at commercial or retail redevelopment.
Anyone who supports Maureen’s campaign can e-mail her on maureen818@btinternet.com
