Golden days end in dust

The demolition team moved on to the site on Monday and used powerful machinery to start pulling down the walls at the back of the building in Timber Street, Chippenham.

Once a thriving cinema, later a popular nightclub, Goldiggers' glory days are far behind now, as the building is finally razed to the ground to make way for retirement flats and shops.

For many this is a sad day. The building holds precious memories for many local people.

In its club heyday in the 1980s, when it was owned by Richard Branson, Goldiggers was the top nightspot in the South West and the setting for the BBC music programme Sight and Sound.

It was also a popular venue for many of the decade's best-loved performers, including The Damned, The Stranglers, Elvis Costello and Level 42.

Paul Hargreaves, who campaigned to save the building, was devastated to see the demolition begin and he went to watch each day as the work progressed.

"I've got so many memories from the place it is really heartbreaking to see it all go," he said.

"This is the worst bit of vandalism since they knocked down the Wembley Stadium and I curse the politicians who did this."

Mr Hargreaves said Monday was particularly hard seeing the 30-ton digger pulling the walls apart to reveal the seashell ceiling. He was allowed into the building over the weekend and was able to rescue old photos and posters from the Goldiggers era.

He also took up pieces of the Canadian hardwood dance floor, which he is planning to sell to people looking for Goldiggers memorabilia. Mr Hargreaves, from Calne, visited what was then the 'big cinema' in Chippenham as a teenager and later enjoyed nights out and concerts at the nightclub.

"Every great band played there," he said. "It is outrageous the situation has come to this. Today is the funeral of Goldiggers, but the wake will be for the politicians who did this."

Ed Deedigan, from Chippenham,who used to organise events at the club, said the loss of the facility was a huge blow to the town with serious consequences for the future of the Chippenham community.

"It is an irreplaceable community resource," he said.

"We will have major problems in this area with all the growth in housing and no community planning and we shall reap the rewards for this with increased delinquency and anti-social behaviour problems among young people."

Mr Deedigan organised a number of concerts in the nightclub, including two charity shows for Ethiopia in 1985 which in the second year led to an articulated lorry being filled with goods to take to the war-torn and famine-ridden country.

Some of his best memories of the club relate to the charity concert for Ethiopia. Mr Deedigan is a Tai Kwon-Do expert and as part of the entertainment laid down on broken glass and allowed Richard Branson to stand on him.

"For about five or six years, in its glory days, Goldiggers was the best venue in the South West. Now you have to go all the way to Reading or Bristol.

"I drove past the building on Monday, and saw them starting to bring it down, and I felt very sad."

Ian Guy, from Chippenham, has earlier memories of the building as a popular cinema.

"Every Saturday morning I'd go along with a friend. We had the same seats in the balcony each time," he said.

Mr Guy watched childhood classics Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Flash Gordon and Grease. "That place holds many of my childhood memories."

Mr Guy was allowed into the building on the weekend before the demolition for a last look and to take some of the remaining lighting equipment and the art deco grillwork.

Mr Guy was part of a campaign group, Preservation of Gaumont Goldiggers, which fought to save the building.

Mr Hargreaves is considering using any money raised from the sale of the dance floor wood to fund the POGG protest group which would come to the aid of any other individuals who were fighting a cause against the district council.

He said the nightclub's mirror ball had been taken down by the demolition team and was set to be auctioned off on Ebay.

Highs and lows of a landmark Art Deco building

The Gaumont Cinema, designed by architect William Trent, was opened in Chippenham on November 14 1936.

The landmark Art Deco building was one of the first smaller, town-sized Gaumonts, according to cinema historian David Reeves, who hopes to write a book about Chippenham's cinemas.

The older Gaumonts were huge, cathedral-like buildings, with seating capacity for 3,000, restaurant and ballrooms.

The Timber Street Gaumont possessed a front faade ornamented with bas reliefs depicting the Spirit of Cinema, with her attendants Sound and Light.

Rank bought out Gaumont in the early 1960s and the cinema became an Odeon.

The cinema was sold again in 1967 when Odeon got rid of 42 of its chain and Classic took over the Chippenham building.

Its career as a cinema came to an end in April 1974 when Classic sold it to North Wiltshire District Council reputedly for some £25,000.

For a few months, the building was used as a storage facility until the Ross Brothers took over the lease to set up a nightclub.

Goldiggers opened its doors for the first time in 1975.

In the early 1980s Richard Branson took over the lease and it is believed he spent £1 million upgrading the nightclub.

In the following years many famous names played at the Chippenham venue, including Marillion, Level 42, The Smiths, the Boomtown Rats and Howard Jones.

Eventually the lease passed to Allied Leisure, and then Gold Leisure and it seemed the glory days were finally over. Gold Leisure ran up debts and the district council finally repossessed the building in 2000 because rent was not paid.

A public consultation exercise by the district council showed 81 per cent of the respondents didn't want the building to be demolished and more than 70 per cent wanted it to be used for leisure activities.

But by next year the site will have shops with retirement flats on the first floor.