Draft:Toppers Nightclub Penrith

Toppers Nightclub was a 1600 capacity Nightclub in Penrith, Cumbria, England open from 1988 to 2014. The nightclub; situated on Southend Road had two floors, with the upstairs (1100 capacity) being dedicated to chart and popular music. During Penrith's night life heyday, Toppers was one of four nightclubs in the town alongside Blues, also in Southend Road and attached to Penrith FC, Gems situated on Burrowgate and Brannigans in Little Dockray. During this time Blues and Toppers were seen as direct competition for the Saturday night 'Hitman and her' crowds as both catered to the same demographic. Brannigans and Gems, both far smaller were seen as 'alternative venues' and consistently struggled to draw in consistent numbers.

In 1994; in order to win the battle for the Saturday night crowd, owner Norman Higgins took the decision to open downstairs as a dedicated dance music venue. Having been made aware that large groups from Penrith were regularly travelling to Angels in Burnley, Zone in Blackpool and Cream in Liverpool, Higgins saw an opportunity to provide the same music on a smaller scale at home. This was something the town had lacked aside from a brief period of dance music nights at the much smaller and short lived Gems nightclub on Burrowgate.

Whilst upstairs remained popular as an alternative to Blues, also on Southend road. Downstairs initially struggled to draw in crowds. Toppers management began looking for younger DJs who were more in touch with the underground dance scene. Local Dj's Lee Lowis, Adam Marshall and Darryl Bryan were brought in and are credited with the success of Toppers. Despite initial criticism from some of the Toppers management staff, the three brought upfront and respected house, trance and garage to the venue leading to regular packed crowds with downstairs. Despite it's lower capacity and smaller dance floor, on some nights it could occasionally be busier than upstairs pulling in punters from Carlisle, Barrow, Whitehaven, Workington and Dumfries.

In 1998 Norman Higgins sold Toppers to Simon Nutter and the three founding DJ's departed. Replacement DJ's found it difficult to replicate the early success and the venue's popularity rapidly declined with the music genres on offer rapidly switching and changing without finding success.

In 2000 PC John Chambers approached Simon Nutter to establish 'Friday @ Toppers' in order to create a safe space for secondary school age children to reduce public youth disorder to great success.<ref name="Friday@Toppers">[https://popcenter.asu.edu/sites/default/files/library/awards/tilley/2002/02-11.pdf]</ref>

Toppers closed it's doors on 25th January 2014 and is now a Wetherspoons named the Dog Beck. Penrith now has just one night club, The Warehouse on Burrowgate.