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STRIPPED BARE
We live in real Full Monty city where tragic, crumbling film location faces demolition – but others look unrecognisable
FEW could have predicted that a comedy about six middle-aged strippers from Sheffield would become a £200million blockbuster that conquered Hollywood.
But 26 years on, The Full Monty remains an all-time British classic and has even inspired a follow-up series that launched on Disney+ this month.
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The new show, which retains the film's title, catches up with the group of former steel workers who formed a Chippendales-style striptease act to make some quick cash.
And while returning stars like Robert Carlyle and Mark Addy understandably look a bit different since the original's release in 1997, the wonderful backdrop of Sheffield has also been through a transformation.
The hill, canals, and streets played their part in creating memorable scenes in a little British film that became a world sensation, pipping the Titanic to the post for a BAFTA and winning an Oscar for its musical score.
While residents remain proud of the movie that put the Steel City on the world map, only some of its iconic filming locations have stood the test of time.
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For starters, the two cooling towers at Tinsley Viaduct that pierced the Sheffield skyline in the 90s film were demolished in 2008, after locals failed to save them from destruction.
Now, they fear another legendary landmark could suffer the same fate.
Millthorpe Working Men’s Club (interior)
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Now taken over by developers, applications have been made to bulldoze Shiregreen Working Men's Club, which featured at the end of the film when the lads got naked to the tune of You Can Leave Your Hat On.
So far supporters have been able to stave them off, but they are worried it is only a matter of time.
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If you don’t recognise the club, this is because it was only used for the interior shots of the fictional Millthorpe Working Men's Club, with another venue used for the exterior.
It is now a sorry sight, derelict and covered in overgrowth. It has been fenced off to stop intruders who have since broken in and vandalised the place, setting it on fire and nicking the radiators for scrap metal.
The gold curtains are still inside and ‘Home of the Full Monty’ is blazoned across its front - the only signs the club was once a mecca for fans.
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Club stewardess Ann Bentley, 82, who ran the club for 16 years from 1987 to 2001 along with her husband, Roy, said: “I’ve seen Robert Carlyle say there has always been a Full Monty shadow in his life and that is the same with me.
"The film meant so much to us at the club, not only to be fascinated to watch it being filmed - from the boys asking for three shots of whisky to do the final strip scene - but to be part of the explosion that happened afterwards.
“We would get coach loads of people turning up to see us and we had a period of time when different groups of fellas came to do their own strip shows for charity.
“It really breaks my heart that the club has been left as it is. I do think it’s an important part of our city and history.
"I had a go at trying to re-open it in 1999 and it looked like it could happen when we got over 1000 signatures on a petition but then Covid happened and it all went down the pan. Now I think it’s too late, it is beyond repair.
“We never realised what was going to happen with the film. We thought it was going to be a small production. We didn’t think it would be up for an Oscar.
"20th Century Fox put £1,000 behind the bar for the night of the Academy Awards, with young William Snape, who played Gaz’s son Nathan, celebrating with us. It was beaten by Titanic, of course, but Anne Duddley got an award for the musical score.”
Millthorpe Working Mens’ Club (exterior)
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In the run-down inner city area of Page Hall is the building that was used as the exterior of Millthorpe Working Mens’ Club.
In reality, it is a massive furniture warehouse called Lifestyle Furnishers, which is still run by the same man 26 years later.
The outside is unkempt and uncared for. The last renovation it had - when it was painted red by the Full Monty team - is now peeling and grubby.
Fake signs and lights were put up at the time to create the illusion that it was a working men’s club, along with a Stones brewery sign that hung outside.
Now there is a car parked outside the premises on Idsworth Road with a dirty mattress placed on top, in keeping with the other litter-strewn streets in the run-down estate.
Owner Anwar said: “It was funny being filmed at two venues. At one point you see Robert Carlysle climbing in our window but when he is getting in, he’s filmed at the other club on the inside.
“It has changed so much around here. The cast have aged, I’ve aged.”
He looks back to the filming of Full Monty as a good time in the area when there was a Honda motorbike shop, Spar and Co-op on the high street.
The area now has a reputation for crime and disorder. “It has definitely got worse in all this time,” he said.
Sheffield and Tinsley Canal
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The canal was the spot where Gaz and Dave (played by Mark Addy) get stranded on a sinking car alongside the Bacon Lane Bridge in Attercliffe.
The canal had a massive cleanup in 2015 when it was drained as part of a £45m maintenance programme, ridding it of rubbish (and abandoned vehicles).
Some of the ageing buildings along the canal-side have been demolished and businesses have moved to more modern factories.
One of the companies who moved from the waterside is Linmar Pipework, which was just behind the sinking car in the film.
CEO Mike Lindley jokes: “We provided the length of steel that was used in that scene. We thought it was for a little production and they bought it off us for £75.
“If I’d have thought it was for a movie that would go on to make millions I would have asked for more!”
The job centre
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The Job Centre in the film was the actual job centre on West Street, in Sheffield City Centre, which remains there to this day.
The only change here is the area is more built up and it has a new logo.
The inside of the job centre in the smash hit was filmed elsewhere.
Outside the dole office, restaurant manager James Warner, 39, said: “Sheffield seems to be losing its important landmarks. We now have an important music venue, the Leadmill, being bought out by a chain, Electric Group, who wish to run it themselves.
“We will be losing an independently-run venue that is famous for being the longest-running live music venue in Sheffield, losing what makes it so unique and thriving.”
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One of the film's most famous scenes came inside the job centre, when the budding strippers dance in unison to Donna Summer’s Hot Stuff playing over the tannoy.
This was actually filmed at the old Langsett School on Burton Street, Hillsborough, which closed in 1976.
The scene was even reenacted by Prince Charles in 1998 when he came to open the facility at a Sheffield showcase for the work of the Prince’s Trust. He said: “I like the film so much I’ve seen it twice.”
Today it homes the Sheffield Boxing Centre and Burton Street Foundation, a non-profit organisation supporting the local community.
Inside the building today are various nods to the on-screen moment, including a framed still that hangs on the wall and a copy of the original script with handwritten alterations from writer Simon Beaufoy.
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Glyn Rhodes, 63, who runs the Sheffield Boxing Centre at the old school site, said: “The cast rehearsed in the gym. Back then I’d only just started up and there was not much to it.
“Now we are a thriving boxing club and have been going almost 30 years.
“The car park was full with their vehicles and the catering van.
“A lot has changed since filming took place. A part of the wall has been knocked down to make it more accessible and there has been a lot of investment to make this place a great asset for the community.
“You can see much has been done for the locals here but really it has now come full circle.
"It’s funny timing really, things have improved in between and now, just when the new show is coming out, we are in a position that we’re almost in the same boat, with people struggling in a cost of living crisis.
"There are still people with no jobs and people who can’t afford to eat.”
Newsagents
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After the lads have been arrested for trespassing and stripping in the abandoned steelworks, Gerald buys every newspaper they feature in and dumps them all in the bin.
The newsagents on Granville Road is still there and is now a convenience store run by Thorougoods.
Local Thomas Shore, 38, who works for the rail industry, said: “The film is such a big part of Sheffield.
“I had a family member who had a wedding reception at the club and You Can Leave Your Hat On came on at the end.
“The film was such a classic English film and just as relevant today - with job losses happening right now.
“It has a good message showing how important it is for men to speak to each other and support each other.”
Gerald’s House
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Gerald was the lads’ foreman and lived in a posher part of the city. Today it remains one of the most affluent parts of town, with impressive large houses lining Whirlow Park Road.
Back then Gerald’s home was a dormer bungalow, with the previous owners extending up and back. The family that live there now paid £742,000 for it 10 years ago. It is now a six-bed detached property with white rendering and a gravel drive.
The family, who did not wish to be named, said: “The house was never advertised as being in the Full Monty but the owner told us when we went to see it.
“When we moved in we got a lot of gnomes as moving in presents and we do have a big yellow gnome in our house called Monty and a film poster to pay homage to the film.
“Every so often we’ll get a delivery person asking if it’s the Full Monty house. Although it doesn’t look a bit like it did in the film.”
The house featured a lot in the comic caper, as they topped up their tans on Gerald’s sun bed.
There is also one classic moment when debt collectors came around to take the TV off Gerard, only to be greeted by five semi-naked men.
Made of steel
While the original film focused on the loss of jobs in the steel industry, councillor Pete Price, 85, said: “We had moved on from the Full Monty times with Sheffield attracting a lot of investment to the city, and a lot of people coming to visit.
“The city is still important for steel, it’s just more specialised now and there is not the volume of jobs. It is the unskilled worker who has not been catered for.
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“But we moved in other directions, like being a central hub for sport with the English Institute of Sport, and the Meadowhall shopping centre creating thousands of jobs.
“Unfortunately right now we are heading back to those days with more and more poverty and people having to use food banks. You are getting to the point where the people are feeling demoralised.”
CEO of Sheffield Special Steel Group Simon Marshall defends the steel industry in Sheffield and says that, rather than dying off, as suggested by the initial film, it is a thriving industry.
The UK head office overlooks the canal where Gaz and Dave balanced on an abandoned car and they have recently watched filming of the new series from their waterfront balcony.
Simon said: “Although it was a film that put Sheffield on the map, it was an unfair view of what’s going on in this industry, because the industry has diversified and specialised over the years.
“It gave a depressing view, when Sheffield is an industrial powerhouse with a lot going for it. Sheffield is still a steel city.
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“We are about to celebrate 100 years in business and continue to grow and build more premises here in Sheffield. We have invested £3million in the last three years.
“We have facilities all over the world and continue to be a world leader when it comes to steel.”
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