Walk through any town in Britain and you will be likely to see all sorts of
buildings; cinemas, factories, warehouses, brothels etc. But turn your
attention away for one moment, and when you look back you will see that the same
building has been demolished in the blink of any eye to make way for building
some flats. Sure, Britain is in desperate need of more homes, but hundreds
upon hundreds of tiny little one bedroom "starter homes (?)" priced at £180,000
each probably don't help much. To be honest, we should probably leave
our cinemas and/or brothels intact instead of making way for such homes for
the 'terminally-stupid-but-have-inexplicably-vast-sums-of-wealth-yet-still-want-to-live-in-a-shoebox'
demographic. Alternatively we could compromise and build just one flat,
and to free up land for this we could combine the cinema and brothel into one
facility where you watch 'Rugrats the Movie' on a big screen then a member of
staff with a torch comes round and performs oral sex at intermission, and
possibly sells popcorn and choc-ices at the same time.
It is this fate (being demolished for flats, not being turned into a
Cini-Brothel) that awaited the much renowned 'Buzz Comedy Club' at the
'Southern' pub in Chorlton, Manchester. The famous comedy club has
helped launch the careers of such comedians as Eddie Izzard, Peter Kay, Steve
Coogan, Jack Dee and Harry Hill.
But plans to demolish it, put forward by a mystery developer, had put
the clubs future in jeopardy. However after fierce opposition to the plans, the
local council has stepped in and rejected plans for the demolision and
redevelopment of the site.
Agraman, who has run the Buzz Club for the past 15 years, said: "To have lost
this venue would have been a massive blow, not only to the local community but
also to the longest-running comedy club outside London.
"In terms of bringing through comedians, the Buzz is one of the most
important in the country, second only to the Comedy Store in London. The
Southern is a true community pub you just can't replace."
