Room at the Top: in search of the Bradford locations for a British New Wave classic

With its working-class hero, regional accents and use of northern English locations, Room at the Top (1958) became an early flagship film in the British New Wave that caused a step-change for British cinema in the late 1950s and early 60s. It was the feature debut of Jack Clayton, who – as versatile as he was visually daring in films such as The Innocents (1961), his brilliant version of The Turn of the Screw – would prove to be one of the finest British directors of the era.

Based on the 1957 novel by John Braine, Room at the Top follows handsome womaniser Joe (Laurence Harvey) as he moves from his small Yorkshire town to a bigger, more affluent one in order to take a job in the local treasurer’s department. Initially, he falls for Susan (Heather Sears), the daughter of a powerful industrialist; seeing her conquest as much as a class battle as one of the heart.

After joining a local dramatics society in order to get closer to her, however, he falls for older French woman Alice (an Oscar-winning Simone Signoret). Juggling the two women, he struggles to work out whether he’s more interested in love or money. How far will Joe go, and how many people will he hurt, in order to get to the top?

This tale of social climbing plays out in urban Bradford, with Clayton making the most of the opportunity to film on location. But, as we will see, all was not quite what it seemed. Here are five locations from the film as they stand today.

Having fallen for Susan, Joe tries his luck whenever he can. He spots her shopping for dresses and goes over to talk. We first see Joe on Ivegate, Bradford, wandering the busy street. Today, the road is far from bustling.

He’s caught out at the shop’s entrance by Susan’s supposed future husband Jack (John Westbrook). The shop is on the other side of Ivegate and is today a charity shop.

Joe’s first attempt at getting closer to Susan involves joining a dramatic society. Clayton only ever shows the back entrance of the theatre’s exterior, which was on James Gate. The road has dramatically changed and most of the original buildings have been demolished or replaced.

An entirely different building now stands where the stage door was seen in the film, and mapping the original location today is tricky. 

The only real marker that the scenes were shot on James Gate is the pub seen at the end of the road. The pub is the Boy & Barrel, marked by its distinctive window panes, now gone. Sadly the pub is now permanently closed, though the building is still standing.

For some of the film’s locations, Clayton moved out of Bradford and used other nearby areas. One of the most interesting and prominent of these sites is the town hall where Joe works. Though it’s supposed to be Bradford Town Hall, the building used is, in fact, Halifax Town Hall. We see a shot later on of a car approaching it on Crossley Street.

George (Allan Cuthbertson), Alice’s husband, gets out of the car and wanders into the building’s entrance on Crossley Street. 

Joe himself makes a similar entrance later on, though Clayton shoots it from a higher angle looking out onto the street.

The film ends with a decidedly melancholy marriage between Joe and Susan. We see the ceremony inside the church, and the pair leaving the well wishers in a car. The shots were again taken in Halifax rather than Bradford at All Soul’s Church.

We see the pair drive off down Hayley Hill away from the church. The church is today relatively unchanged though the road is now a busy through-road to the town centre. 

The pair’s car journey continues as they leave their friends and their past behind. However, as with the ending of John Schlesinger’s Bradford-set Billy Liar (1963), Clayton includes a late shot which, despite appearances, is actually in London. It shows a wide, tree-lined road, which the editing implies is somewhere near the church from the previous scene. In fact, it’s Pepys Road in New Cross and is still recognisable today. You just won’t find it anywhere near Bradford.

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