In Between the Lines: Last Night at The Stairways

You won’t find the city that’s the setting for Last Night At The Stairways on Google Maps.

Turpenton is nowhereland. And so’s its neighbour West Bertram.

But, the eponymous club does exist. Sort of.

The name’s taken from a club I used to frequent in the early 1990s in South Croydon.

The Stairway (not plural) was above The Blue Anchor pub, (now The Treehouse) which used to be the only pub where students hung out in central Croydon. There really was very little choice back then, except maybe The Blacksmiths Arms (now closed).

Above is the place as it looks today, with the club entrance to the left of the orange sign. The club’s now called Upstairs.

The layout of the club in the story is based on the Loop Bar, on Crown Hill, a road that does exist and is in the story.

Here’s a recent shot of Crown Hill. The black shop façade on the left is the strip club, briefly mentioned in the book. Next to it, just behind the guy in the white shirt is the pale green entrance to the Loop, through which a staircase leads straight up into the club. The club closed sometime in the late 2010s.

And it’s this club on which I’ve based the layout of the club in Last Night At The Stairways.

Here’s a shot of the bar, against which quite a few unfortunate clubbers have the life crushed out of them in Last Night at The Stairways.