Building record SKT 092 - Jokers Nightclub

The Ipswich Street range of Jokers Nightclub contained a grocer’s shop, cafe and garage during the mid-20th century but was converted into a ballroom and substantially extended to the rear in the 1970s. It became a nightclub known as Jokers in 1993. The range consists of a late-19th century three-storied gault-brick structure on the north (left) and a lower timberframed and rendered building of much the same period to the south. The latter contains a fragment of an earlier timber frame with a painted gable that was dated to the late-17th or early-18th century.

The earlier frame extends to just 3.6 m in width by 4.9 m in length (12 ft by 16 ft) and its eaves were 1 m lower in height before the walls were raised to match a new southern extension at the end of the 19th century. The upper part of its northern gable which adjoins the gault-brick structure was preserved by a chimney shown in 20th century photographs that has since been removed. When exposed during demolition the wall fabric was found to consist of irregular, narrow studs that were tenoned but not pegged to the principal timbers and interrupted by diagonal primary braces that were nailed to the frame. Framing of this kind is typical of the second quarter of the 19th century and there was no evidence of any earlier fabric. The walls had been almost entirely destroyed below the level of the ceiling, which had also been largely rebuilt in the 20th century. The upper section of the former external gable to the north bore traces of yellow ochre to its plaster and red ochre to its projecting purlin and barge rafter, but not to a moulded fascia board which had been added later. Decorative paintwork of this kind became commonplace during the mid-19th century, replacing the ubiquitous whitewash of the 17th and 18th centuries, and examples are frequently found behind later brick facades or in the roofs of extensions. Given the fragmentary survival of the walls it proved impossible to establish the building’s original configuration or purpose (S1).