Working men's clubs are British private

social club A social club or social organization may be a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation or activity with in an organizational association known as a Club (organization), club. Exampl ...

s first created in the 19th century in industrial areas, particularly the

North of England Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmorland and Yorkshire. Officially, it is a gr ...

Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

and South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education for

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

men and their families.

History

The first working men's club opened in 1857 in

Reddish Reddish is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester city centre. At the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census, the population was 28,052. Historic counties of England, Historical ...

, Reddish Working Men's Club is still located on Greg Street, and was established for the workers of Victoria and Albert Mill. Wisbech Working Men's Club & Institute was formed in 1864 in

Wisbech Wisbech ( ) is a market town, inland port and civil parish in the Fenland District, Fenland district in Cambridgeshire, England. In 2011 it had a population of 31,573. The town lies in the far north-east of Cambridgeshire, bordering Norfolk and ...

, Isle of Ely, and moved to its present site in 1867. It was once the most financially successful of all the clubs in England, with over 1,300 members in 1904. Working men's clubs provided a framework for members to engage in a range of political, educational, or recreational activities. Despite the original educational ambitions, most working men's clubs are now mainly recreational. Typically, a club would have a room, often referred to (especially in Northern England) as a vault, with a bar for the sale and consumption of alcohol,

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets: one at each corner and ...

pool Pool may refer to: Bodies of water * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a roc ...

or bar billiards tables, as well as televisions for sport entertainment; many provide food. A much larger room would be connected, often called the concert or entertainment room, with a stage and a layout of tables, stools and backrest sofas. They often provide night time entertainment, mainly at the weekends such as bingo,

raffle A raffle is a gambling competition in which people obtain numbered tickets, each of which has the chance of winning a prize. At a set time, the winners are drawn at random from a container holding a copy of each number. The drawn tickets are che ...

s, live music

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...

and comedy, playing

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

. They are also known for their charitable works. Declining membership has seen many clubs close down and others struggle to remain open.

Membership and structure

Working men's clubs are

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

s run by their members through a committee, usually elected annually. Each club has rules that tend to be vigorously enforced. The committee will discipline members (common punishments being a warning, or a ban for a period) for violations. Despite the name, women are allowed to be members in many clubs, and virtually all clubs allow entry to women. Non-members are not allowed entry unless signed in by a member. In the UK they are registered as co-operatives under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, normally using model rules supplied by the Clubs and Institutes Union. A dispute at Wakefield City Workingmen's Club in 1978 led to a national campaign for equal membership rights for women. Sheila Capstick, whose husband was an activist in the NUM, had been a regular snooker player at the club before a ban was instituted on women playing snooker. Her protest, ''A Woman's Right to Cues'', developed into a nationwide campaign for equal rights: ''ERICCA – Equal Rights in Clubs Campaign for Action''. In April 2007, after the resolution had been consistently rejected over years, the Club and Institutes Union accepted equal membership rights for women.

Club and Institute Union

Most clubs affiliate to the Working Men's Club and Institute Union (commonly known as the CIU or C&IU). The CIU is affiliated to the Committee of Registered Clubs Associations. A member of one affiliated club is entitled to use the facilities of other clubs. There were 2,200 affiliated working men's clubs in the UK as of 2010. There are 1,175 as of 2024. The CIU has two purposes: to provide a national voice for clubs, and to provide discounted products and services for clubs.

Brewery

Until 2004, clubs ran a brewery at Dunston, Tyne and Wear, which brewed ales and lagers under the ''Federation'' brand. The brewery and brands were sold to

Scottish & Newcastle Scottish & Newcastle plc was a brewing company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, which expanded from its home base to become an international business with beer volumes growing almost tenfold. The company was listed on the London Stock Exc ...

for £16.2 million, although CIU clubs still receive discounted beer.

Impact of 2007 smoking ban

A poll by the British Institute of Innkeeping and the Federation of Licensed Victuallers Associations found that overall revenue was 7.3 per cent down as more men opted to drink at home, where they could also smoke.

References

External links

{{Commons category
Club Historians website
Clubs and societies in the United Kingdom Clubs and societies in Australia Clubs and societies in New Zealand