But moves are being made to re-open The Ex-Servicemen's Club – which has more than 150 members – as a private club following its closure on December 31.

The building's landlord, The Kerr House Trust, has recently completed a 'dilapidation report' into the club's grade two-listed home in Sheep Street, which called for a range of improvements totalling £160,000.

The majority of committee members voted to close the club and then at an emergency general meeting the membership also support ed the new proposal. A business plan to re-open the club was presented.

Andy Handley, the club's president, said factors like the repair bill, a downturn in membership and the smoking ban had all culminated in the closure.

He said: "It's had a lot of good years and it has come to a head now, we can't afford to repair the building and something has got to be done."

Barry Slasberg, president of the South East Midlands Club and Institute Union, said: "It has come around from a low point and it has worked its way up and there is lots more potential.

"I believe it has a perfectly reasonable future as a working men's club."

Mr Slasberg, chairman of the Kingsley Park club in Northampton, has previously claimed more than one in 10 working men's clubs in Northampton could be on the brink of closure as the smoking ban takes hold.

Almost six months after the ban on smoking in public places, Mr Slasberg said almost all the 30 working men's clubs across the borough were suffering from a downturn in business.

And he said previous national estimates of 10 per cent closures could well underestimate the impact in Northampton.

Many MPs, including the member for Northampton South, Brian Binley, were against the ban, arguing that people working and drinking in working men's clubs had chosen to risk smoking-related diseases.

Mr Binley said he was seeking a meeting with a Government minister to re-open the smoking ban debate and push for a possible exclusion for private members' clubs.

We have been asked to clarify that Kingsley Park WMC is not in danger of closing. Previously published comments by Barry Slasberg about possible closures were about clubs in Northampton in general.