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).
9. Beauty and the beast
At the Pavilion Hotel, the young Charles Laughton, a future Hollywood film star, helped out until his mother sent him to be trained at Claridges in London. His brothers Tom and Frank also joined the family hotel business, Tom later running the Royal Hotel.
10. Beauty and the beast
Pavilion Square pictured in 1983.
11. Beauty and the beast
Kwik Save occupied a unit of Pavilion House, as did the Tourist Information Centre.
12. Beauty and the beast
The concrete and glass of Pavilion House contrasts with the Victorian architecture of the railway station and its clock tower in this photo.