Top Storey Club 01/05/1961
The Top Storey Club was a nightclub located on Crown Street in Bolton, Lancashire, later designated as part of Greater Manchester from 1974, England. The venue became widely known following a fire on 1 May 1961 in which 19 people lost their lives.
The club occupied the upper levels of a former mill warehouse building. While the street-facing façade presented three storeys, the structure was constructed on a slope, resulting in eight storeys at the rear overlooking the River Croal, which at that location flowed through a brick-lined channel. The nightclub was established in December 1960 by Stanley Wilcock, who leased the premises and operated a kitchen furniture manufacturing business on the lower floors. In March 1961, ownership of the nightclub operating on the top two floors was transferred to two Manchester-based businessmen, Denis Wilson and Richard Sorrensen, while Wilcock retained use of the lower floors for his furniture enterprise.
The premises were modest in size, containing only a limited number of tables, and entertainment consisted of recorded music for listening or dancing. The maximum occupancy of the club was estimated to be approximately 200 patrons. The owners of the building became aware of the nightclub’s operation through an advertisement in the Bolton Evening News and expressed concerns regarding the suitability of the structure for such use. On the evening of 1 May 1961, at approximately 10.35 p.m., one of the owners, Norman Balshaw, attended the club and informed Wilson and Sorrensen that the nightclub was to cease operating and that the premises were to be vacated by 24 June.
Top Storey Club fire, Bolton | 1st May 1961
This notorious blaze in Bolton, Lancashire, made legal history. The fire broke out less than six months after the venue had opened as a nightclub on the top two floors of an old mill warehouse building, the lower floor housing a kitchen furniture workshop.
The Top Storey Club: The Deadly Fire of 1961
It seems a little strange that a fire in Bolton town centre could have taken 19 lives only for it to have drifted back into the mists of time over the 50 years since it happened.
Let’s take a look at those events and the repercussions from them.
People leapt 80ft off a window ledge in Greater Manchester nightclub tragedy
Bill Bohannon had raised the alarm when he saw someone falling from a window… and then another
1966 – The Top Storey Club was one of the Premier Venues in the Sixties
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Boss of fire-hit Top Storey Club dies at 84
Bill Bohannon was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year and died on November 9.
His wife Beryl, aged 69, paid tribute to her husband, describing him as a devoted family man who continued to be haunted by the tragic events of May 1, 1961, when a fire ripped through the newly opened nightspot.