THEN: Worcester’s Rainbow Hill Ex-Servicemen’s Club in Mayfield Road pictured below in 1971.

(Image: Newsquest)

People will have plenty of memories of events and parties at this unusual-looking building over the years.

Located next to terraced houses and raised above ground level, it tended to stand out.

It was expanded from a hut building, constructed post-war, into fairly substantial premises.

The club was said to be particularly lively on Saturday nights and in 1970 residents were “dismayed and indignant” over plans to extend again with a concert room and parking underneath.

Some even described the building as “the monster in our midst” while complaints were also received over parking issues on the narrow road.

There were more than 1,000 members at the time.

The concert room did get built, however, the following year and in 1976 it was named after George Brace.

He had served as club secretary for 14 years and died in 1975.

Meanwhile, the road probably took its name from Mayfield Lodge, a large house which once stood at the north end of the street.

Built over the fields of Merriman’s Hill Farm before 1884, new houses have been continually added over the years.

NOW: The same location pictured below in 2024.

(Image: Newsquest)

The club was finally demolished early last year after closing in the summer of 2019 due to “falling membership numbers” and being left empty.

It has since been replaced with Mayfield Court — 22 social housing apartments with 16 one-bedroom flats and six two-bedroom ones.

The Platform Housing Group project on the sloped site was completed this month after starting in October 2022.

In 2012 and by then known as Rainbow Hill Social Club, membership was down to around 150.

At the time its committee was replacing an oil-fired boiler which had been going for 45 years.