A long-standing community venue is at serious risk of closure due to ongoing financial difficulties.
Acomb Working Men’s Club has operated since 1970 and once had more than 2,000 members. Over the decades, the club expanded many times to accommodate growing demand.
However, like many similar clubs, membership has declined, leaving much of the large space unused during opening hours.
A big drop-off in custom since Covid has been followed by a “slow decline.” Since coming out of lockdown, the club’s trade has reduced by around a third.
Club secretary Richard Smith said the financial situation at the club worsened in the middle of 2024.
“It’s got to a case where it’s not viable, which we realised after we had our end-of-year financials,” he said.
The club has a large function room that seats 300 people and regularly hosts community events and music nights, but Richard says audience numbers continue to decrease.
As well as serving fewer customers, electricity costs and brewery rates have increased, placing further strain on the club’s finances.
“A lot of people have changed their habits. People don’t want to go out anymore because it costs.
“When I used to go round town we could go out with twenty, thirty quid, now it’s often costing over £100, and it can even get costly at working men’s clubs,” Richard told YorkMix.
He believes the only realistic way forward is to downsize, as it’s now too big a venue to sustain.
“The club scene has died a death,” Richard said. “It doesn’t get used as it should do because it’s such a big building, it has a lot of overheads.
“A lot of the members don’t tend to use the club as much even though they keep their membership up.”
He also feels there’s a stigma that surrounds the club owing to it catering largely to the older generation, which may discourage younger customers.
Met with developers
The club has already met with two developers and is considering demolishing part of the building to sell the land.
The plan is to rebuild a smaller, two-storey venue at around half the size of the current function room.
The smaller space would cost much less to run, for electric and heating costs, and the club would benefit from the sale of the land.
The club has so far hosted one meeting with its members to discuss the future of the club, which took place at the beginning of April.
There were around 170 attendees, with the vast majority supporting the redevelopment plans, so long as the club can continue operating
“I think there were only about a handful, maybe not even more than five or six people who disagreed with what we were trying to do,” Richard said.
He believes some of these just “want to see the club close.”
“People take memberships in clubs, don’t actually go to the place, keep up the membership, and then hope it closes so they get a payout.”
The future of Acomb WMC relies on member usage and developer consent, and without this, it could realistically only continue for a matter of months.
Richard emphasised that the club is a valuable community space to many. “It’s not just a place to drink, it’s a big social aspect for a lot of our members, because it gets them out of the house.”
He urges everyone to their support, “as I always say, use it or lose it – I’ve been trying to get that message across for the last four or five years”.
A second members meeting will be scheduled soon. Details and updates on the club’s future can be found on the Acomb WMC Facebook page.