"... In addition there are club waiters - as many as 20 in the larger clubs - who radiate from the bars into the various rooms of the club . These are the most nimble of fellows with their jackets discarded in favour of white aprons, and wearing plimsolls upon their feet for greater agility and less clatter. They scurry through the club from opening until closing time, dodging through the crowds. This picture of the club is incomplete unless it is released that at all times it is packed with people, talking and laughing. These waiters are as adept at slipping through the crowds as the trickiest of footballers, and they carry the customer's beer with amazing dexterity. Theirs is arduous work, and the remarkable thing is that they seem to maintain the most complected social contacts while performing it. They know everybody, and with each group past which they scurry they exchange snatches of conversation, breaking off in mid sentence, resuming on thge next journey by. It has the fascination and the skill of a chess master playing twenty games simultaneously on different boards. These men are sociable and jovial threads running through the tangled skein of the evening..."
The above was taken from a tatty book I own simply entitled "Your Club". To me it reflects how much these places have changed in a period before my time drinking. My own memory of social clubs is one of peeling wallpaper, blue cigarette smoke, usually from a "superking", crap cabaret, kids running wild and long rows of old looking folk. It would seem there was once a lot more to a social club. One wonders if it was still the case, would they still prosper?
Murton club was built at the century, serving the local community most of whom worked at Murton Colliery. My Grandfather was one such member of that community, so I was keen to see this place with it's link to my own family's history.
The club itself was not interesting as Easington, save for one office which was full of old paperwork and other bits abd bobs which had sat in a cupboard for years. I found the printed signs most interesting... "No Spitting", "Don't mess with the tele", "Don't stand here", Breathing..... Have you cleared that with the committee??!
This is the BIGGEST wood louse I have ever seen!
The above was taken from a tatty book I own simply entitled "Your Club". To me it reflects how much these places have changed in a period before my time drinking. My own memory of social clubs is one of peeling wallpaper, blue cigarette smoke, usually from a "superking", crap cabaret, kids running wild and long rows of old looking folk. It would seem there was once a lot more to a social club. One wonders if it was still the case, would they still prosper?
Murton club was built at the century, serving the local community most of whom worked at Murton Colliery. My Grandfather was one such member of that community, so I was keen to see this place with it's link to my own family's history.
The club itself was not interesting as Easington, save for one office which was full of old paperwork and other bits abd bobs which had sat in a cupboard for years. I found the printed signs most interesting... "No Spitting", "Don't mess with the tele", "Don't stand here", Breathing..... Have you cleared that with the committee??!
This is the BIGGEST wood louse I have ever seen!
