This is Hulme Labour Club where I spent a lot of my time in the late 1970s into the 1980s, and it is in way of an introduction to a new short series on Radio 4, which focuses on the story of the Working Man's Club.*
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| Hulme Labour Club, 1971 |
"Pete Brown is a convivial guide on this journey through the intoxicating history of working men’s clubs.
From the movement’s founding by teetotal social reformer the Reverend Henry Solly to the booze-soaked mid-century heyday, when more than 7 million Brits were members, this warm-hearted and entertaining book reveals how and why the clubs became the cornerstone of Britain’s social life – offering much more than cheap Federation Bitter and chicken in a basket.
Often dismissed as relics of a bygone age, Pete reminds us that long before the days of Phoenix Nights, 3,000-seat venues routinely played host to stars like Shirley Bassey, Louis Armstrong and the Bee Gees, offering entertainment for all the family, and close to home at that. Britain’s best-known comedians made reputations through a thick miasma of smoke, from Slough to Skegness.
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| Crumpsall Labour Club, 1995 |
The book explores the clubs’ role in defining community and class identity for generations of men, and eventually women, in Britain’s industrial towns. They were, at their best, a vehicle for social mobility and self-improvement, run as cooperatives for working people by working people - an informal, community-owned pre-cursor to the welfare state.
Written and Read by Pete Brown
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4"
Picture; Hulme, Bonsall Street, Labour Club, H Milligan, 1971, m25540, Crumpsall Labour Club, M. Luft, 1995, m68241, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
*Clubland, Radio 4, available for the next five weeks, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001gx6p
