Until 1973, the glorious Pavilion Hotel occupied a huge site at the corner of Westborough and Valley Bridge Parade. In that year, the five-storey hotel was demolished, to be replaced by the brutalist concrete Pavilion House, which houses offices with shops on the ground floor. Many people have an intense dislike of that building, variously described as a "carbuncle" or a "monstrosity". Take a look at these before and after photos, and also others of the "top of town" ... the top of Westborough (although the road does continue beyond the railway station, to become Falsgrave Road).
1. Beauty and the beast
The hotel was designed by architect William Baldwin Stewart and built in 1870.
2. Beauty and the beast
Previously a large house, the hotel was bought by the Laughton family in 1908 after moving across the road from their former home the Victoria Hotel on Westborough.
3. Beauty and the beast
It had an elegant facade, and its two domes were mirrored on other buildings in Pavilion Square.
4. Beauty and the beast
The hotel dominated the landscape as visitors arrived at the railway station.