The Concert Room

Working men’s clubs were once an integral social and cultural institution at the heart of working class communities throughout the UK.

Social reformer and strict teetotaler Henry Solly first launched the Working Men’s Club and Institute Union in 1862.

Solly believed drink was a one of the biggest problem facing the working classes, and envisioned social clubs as a healthy alternative to the pub.

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, the teetotal element didn’t last long as many working men wished to have a drink in their free hours.

During their heyday in the early 1970s, there were just over 4,000 CIU-affiliated clubs across the country.

The clubs offered a lot of opportunities to drink beer and to play bingo, but the institutions were, and still are, about much more than these activities.

Most clubs had a Concert Room, and this room provide the local community with a space for social interaction.

Concert Rooms have a unique aesthetic. Some are impressive affairs comprising a huge stage, state of the art lighting rig and sound system and enormous dance floors, while others have retained their original charm.

Some of my earliest childhood memories are of being taken to the local club.

For many people, these rooms hold intimate personal and collective memories of birthdays parties, engagements, weddings, christenings and wakes, as well as numerous other social events.

As part of the North East Photography Network’s festival, The Social: Encountering Photography, a series of images from this project were reproduced as a set of beer mats that were distributed to clubs around the north east of England.