So, what 'is' this old building in Marston Road?

[Mudhoney]

Being a Stafford newby (9 years in the town) I've often wondered what this old building was in Marston Road.

http://goo.gl/maps/gmyZQ

Can any of you Staffordians enlighten me

 

[darben]

http://www.search.staffspasttrack.o...direction=&pointer=4846&text=0&resource=17245. The order of buffaloes social club apparently!

 

[Fonzie-NL]

See also old discussion on this building:

http://www.staffordforum.com/xf/index.php?threads/marston-rd-what-was-this-building.7191/

 

[Gramaisc]

It was the Irish Club for a while - until it started to lean out into the road and the top was knocked off - before it fell off..

 

[darben]

I always thought it had been a theatre, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Antediluvian_Order_of_Buffaloes this article gives some background to the order and its theatrical origins.

 

[Mudhoney]

Thanks folks, Fascinating stuff, never realised that just the frontage remained. I always thought it might have Masonic connections, but the 'Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes' seems much more impressive.

 

[Gramaisc]

It may have also been the Reform Club at one time.

http://www.archives.staffordshire.g...AND(Title='stafford'))&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqPos=9

 

[Withnail]

I always had my suspicions that this particular element of the Flintstones was rooted in fact.

Back in the day, like.

 

[Gramaisc]

http://www.raob.org/ - I always got the impression that it was rather like a poor-man's Masons...

It was fairly popular amongst the military, at one time..

In fact, I believe that my father had a go at it, but soon got fed up..

 

[John Marwood]

JTA travel rings a bell, may have been next door

Also seem to remember a strip club near there in the seventies

I actually think the building was ok until Jimmy Seargant's testimonial - the clayheads drugged up night out caused quite a lot of grief at the time

 

[That-Crazy-Rat-Lady]

See also old discussion on this building:

http://www.staffordforum.com/xf/index.php?threads/marston-rd-what-was-this-building.7191/

Ah! One of my first ever posts!
It is a beautiful building!

Although I hear whoever owns it has no intention of selling, behind the frontage there is nothing....

 

[Biggie G]

You may have to revise that statement TCRL, there is a "For Sale" notice on the front of the boards covering the archway, spotted it when I was out and about today.

 

[That-Crazy-Rat-Lady]

Oooh I shall do some ear waggling and report back....

 

[Gramaisc]

Oooh I shall do some ear waggling and report back....

Try to be discrete..

..you don't want people to think you might be basil..

 

[tek-monkey]

Looks like its just a frontage, no roof on it certainly as you can see sky through the cracks in it. Guessing its being sold for redevelopment.

 

[Crimsonfox]

I've always wondered why that place was, even now it still looks interesting with whatever is left of it. I would like to think someone is keeping a secret garden behind it but it's probably just an overgrown mess inside. =/

 

[That-Crazy-Rat-Lady]

Yeah its just full of rubble - they knocked down all of the interior walls and filled the cellar with the bricks as the floor fell through - there was word that then they were going to pour concentrate and fill it to make a 'solid' foundation....

The frontage is beautiful tho just not a lot left now!