Over the last 18 months, Stir to Action’s Centre for Democratic Business has been working with a range of organisations and individuals who are concerned about, or part of, revitalising the future of Britain’s social clubs.
Though the number of clubs and total membership has collapsed over the last generation from its peak of 4,000 clubs and four million members in the 1970s, there are still around 1,800 clubs in Britain, providing space for community connection through sports and recreation, culture and the arts, and vital local services.
These social clubs embody the history of working people’s struggle to decide for themselves how they want to associate, socialise, organise, and build community, often in the face of suspicious authorities or paternalistic reformers. As non-transactional spaces where members can govern their own spaces outside of the public or private sector, they are more relevant than ever.
Today, the nation’s clubs present a mixed picture. Many have closed their doors, while others are underused, or converting to new uses and ownership. Some survive mainly by leasing space to other groups, serving as community assets beyond their use by members. In many cases, there is social conflict over their futures, and, more rarely, there are examples of revitalisation.
Within the context of a weak civil society – particularly the alarming decline of the nation’s social infrastructure – we asked MPs, civil society groups, trade unions, community organisers, and legal professionals about why we need to save and revitalise social clubs.
Half a century ago the Club and Institute Union issued around seven million membership cards every year. Now it’s about one million. Their loss is terrible news for everyone as the kinds of social bonds made in clubs are crucial not only for our own wellbeing, but critically for fostering our ability to live together well, too.
In a recent paper Demos cited a literature review of 148 international research studies, concluding that strong ties have a huge bearing on our longevity. That builds on the finding from the former US Surgeon General that loneliness is as bad for us as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. At the same time, HOPE not hate research has found that the presence of a community venue like a club is a key indicator of community health and – therefore – an important inoculation against populist politics. People who don’t encounter each other are less likely to trust each other and where trust is absent, division can grow.
It is important we fight for all sorts of community assets to be retained and supported to thrive, but clubs must have a special status because they aren’t simply places we go but places we belong. A membership structure means we all have a stake and a say. Working class clubs have a proud history but we need not think of them as simply part of our heritage. Let’s save and reinvent these vital, magical places for tomorrow. Let’s club together.
Social clubs are as varied in form as the buildings they inhabit, with a range of institutions falling under this broad banner – from working men’s clubs and men’s institutes to miner’s welfare clubs. No longer the preserve of only one half of the population, social clubs now go beyond their original remits, but most are still, at least physically, located in the heart of their communities.
A good example is Caerphilly Workmen’s Hall. This club originated in the efforts of a group of workers from the local collieries who began the welfare movement in the town. As part of this, they donated a portion of their weekly wages into a fund to pay for the development of the hall and in 1925, Caerphilly Workmen’s Hall was opened to the public. It included a games room, a snooker room, a library and a reading room, as well as the main hall which hosted a cinema and entertainments. The Grade II building celebrated its 100th birthday this year with a range of musical performances and it has drawn in people like John Cooper Clark in recent times. It’s undoubtedly hard work for a group of (often aging) volunteers and the finances are tight – but plans are in development to bring in new groups to lead the next stage of the Hall’s life.
That story of struggle to find capacity, energy and money is not one exclusive to Caerphilly or social clubs more generally. Despite many operating from some fantastic historic buildings, many need repair and renewal programmes that can seem daunting. The directors of social clubs operating in areas with high land and property values might also be tempted to sell their properties, particularly if legal and governance structures are not robust. Whilst it is understandable that overworked volunteer boards might be looking for ways out, working to prevent the loss of vital social infrastructure is an incredibly important cause for the long-term benefit of communities.
That is why the Architectural Heritage Fund is pleased to be supporting Stir to Action’s efforts to revive social clubs, including through the conference it is organising on the 11th September at the Mildmay Club in London. We’re keen to engage in a conversation about how we help social clubs revive themselves for the twenty-first century, including the financing and support they need. In the meantime, if you’re operating a social club out of a historic building check out the ways we can already help through www.ahfund.org.uk.
As a solicitor, I specialise in working for community groups and third sector organisations, including many social clubs. For me, social clubs offer a great example where principles of collectivism, democracy, community control and self-help are baked into a legal structure. In contrast to corporate venues owned by remote shareholders, the community is in control of the organisation, gets to decide what happens there, and has a say over how any profits generated are used.
Social clubs represent grassroots culture: affordable, accessible and with the freedom to be innovative. In the current climate where other community facilities are being lost, we should be looking at social clubs as a community facility. Could they become multi-functional spaces, following the route that some community pubs and shops have gone down, with libraries, post office or co-working spaces or even music practice space all existing within a single venue? The infrastructure is there, we just need to celebrate and preserve it, to make sure it continues.
The Labour government has said they want to double the size of the co-op and mutuals sector. Social clubs could – and should – be part of that drive, to ensure the continued democratisation of culture and the safeguarding of our community heritage and assets.
The UK’s grassroots music venue sector has grown out of a very British spectrum of repurposed and reclaimed spaces, in very few cases have the bricks and mortar been planned specifically with a music venue in mind. We are a nation experiencing the very best of emerging live music talent in venues built up from the back rooms of pubs, cellars of banks, reclaimed shops, decommissioned factories and churches. Countless grassroots music venues exist within social clubs, either as an ongoing decision by the social club to provide live music culture to their community, or as a partnership of co-existence and sharing of the social space; vibrant local and international grassroots music can be found in the nation's social clubs.
Social clubs and grassroots music venues are responding to the needs of their community users; reflecting the values, aspirations and desire for connection found within their local community. With more and more grassroots music venue operators recognising the inherently not for profit nature of their cultural output and transitioning to organised not-for-profit models and community ownership as a way of securing the venue for future generations, the commonality between social clubs and grassroots music venues is stronger than ever. Without social clubs and grassroots music venues, live music culture and social connection is displaced further and further away from our doorstep. Access to grassroots live music and social exchange shouldn’t ever be the preserve of those wealthy enough to travel to it.
One of my fondest memories is of a week spent painting a wooden bar in my local youth club to look like the light-up floor of a 1970s disco. This is the run-of-the-mill community activity that added together is essential to thriving neighbourhoods. In 2019 Local Trust worked with the Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion to develop the Community Needs Index which maps social infrastructure across the England and clearly demonstrates that neighbourhoods which score badly for connectivity, places, and spaces to meet and community activity fare far worse than other areas, even when adjusted to take into account material deprivation.
In this country social clubs have traditionally been a mainstay of social infrastructure, often the beating heart of communities, a source of solidarity, identity, support in hard times. They are institutions which help members develop skills and nurture passions. Their decline has coincided with that of other shared spaces like pubs, places of worship, sports fields and commons and while a decade or more of austerity has played its part, huge cultural shifts have taken place that have eroded the role of these often hyperlocal institutions in our communities: deindustrialisation, the dominance of the internet, social media in particular, and fewer people living in one place over the long-term.
None of this means that social clubs are no longer needed, on the contrary, overt efforts to counter the damage being done to our social fabric is essential. I don’t know if my youth club is still going, but I do know there are thousands of social clubs up and down the country that are, and whilst they may need to adapt to a changing world, they can only do so if we save them now.
For communities to thrive, we need spaces and places to come together. Social clubs have served this function for more than a century, but have seen a steady decline in recent decades. Halting this decline is important for three reasons.
First, this is already existing social infrastructure, at a time when lots of places for people to come together are being lost. Youth clubs shuttered. Community centres sold off by cash-strapped councils. Despite there being fewer than half the number of social clubs than at their peak, 1800 remain and have the potential – with the right support – to regain members and expand the number of people that use their spaces.
Second, there is lots we in wider civil society can learn from the enterprising and membership-led model employed by social clubs. At Power to Change, we work with community businesses – all of which use some form of trading as part of their business model and many of which are owned and run by members of the community. The ‘pass card’ that was a feature of many social clubs – enabling members to access clubs across the country – was a real perk of membership. Could this be used elsewhere in civil society?
Third, we shouldn’t underestimate their impact on politics and democracy. A 1920s survey showed that social club members accounted for 178 Members of Parliament. At a more local level, members of social clubs were a common feature of different tiers of local government at this peak. At Power to Change, we are researching the decline in involvement in all manner of local, civil society organisations and how this interacts with trust in politics and democracy, and uncovering significant interplay between the two things. We should see saving our nation’s social clubs as part of this bigger fight to bolster our democracy.
Social clubs – of all kinds – represent over a century of accumulated community wealth across British communities. Their preservation isn't just about nostalgia, it's about protecting and enhancing member-owned social infrastructure that can serve communities for generations to come.
Our recent national survey highlights an urgent need but also an optimistic future for Britain’s Social Clubs, but it relies on recognising their cultural significance, the powerful formula of mutual ownership, and working together to build political momentum and long-term support for an overlooked sector in our communities.
Over the next few months, I’m really excited to be working with Wrigleys Solicitors and Community Shares Company on a legal and campaign guide to support members to prevent the sale of their clubs, with the Co-operative Party and MP Kirsty McNeill and her parliamentary team on a '21st Century Club Charter' to secure better government policy and third sector support, and with Wrigleys Solicitors, The Architectural Heritage Fund, Local Trust, and the The Rayne Foundation on a national conference in London in September.
What Support do Social Clubs need? Results from a National Survey – STIR Issue 48
