Not Just Beer and Bingo! A Social History of Working Men's Clubs

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast

We open the doors on that bastion of the British entertainment scene, the working men’s clubs. Hear about their development in the mid-19th century to their current period of decline. Why were they set up? What went on in them? And how did women come to find their own place in them? Drawing on personal accounts and experiences of those attending the clubs, this talk highlights the major roles they played and what made them such a central part of working class leisure. Dr Ruth Cherrington attended working men’s clubs from a very young age. She is the author of Not Just Beer and Bingo! A Social History of Working Men’s Clubs and runs a website 'Club Historians' dedicated to the history and development of the working men’s club movement.