Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Let's back the Langham, our local workingmen's club

About a year ago (thanks to a project which HoL was taking part in) I began to realise just how important workingmen’s clubs can be in building communities, and therefore how important it is to keep them.

In Harringay, we have our very own club, the Langham at 600 Green Lanes (a couple of hundred metres north of St. Ann’s Road), and now I’ve finally taken the plunge and applied to become a member. It would be a great if others would do the same.

What’s it like?

Well, it’s easy to feel at home there, and they have quite a bit to offer. If you like snooker, there is a very large room with 4 tables (purists will appreciate the challenging small pockets). There are various entertainments at weekends and activities throughout the week. There is a function room which is available to members without charge for parties of up to 200, and members are welcome to bring their children.

Its great virtue is that it provides a place where older people can go out for an evening and feel perfectly safe and comfortable. And yet, it is by no means a ghetto of the elderly. True, a twenty-something would be most unlikely to go there “on the pull”, but it’s a pleasant enough place to start an evening gently before heading off to more serious clubbing.

And it’s nearby and it’s reasonably priced, and the subs are nominal.

Although clearly the long-standing members of the club would not wish to transform it so completely that it no longer resembles the thing which has attracted them over the years, I can say that the committee is certainly open to suggestions for new activities to “breathe new life into the place.” The “Bombay Bicycle Club” band has done filming there, for example.

So, hope to see some of you there.

To find out more, just pop in any evening and ask to speak to a member of the committee. if no-one’s around, then leave a message at the bar.

David Schmitz

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Permalink Reply by 1ka153tip0bl0 on March 1, 2012 at 18:49

I couldn't agree more. I've been a member of the langham working men's club for longer than I care to remember and I definitely recommend giving it a go.

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Permalink Reply by Ruth on March 2, 2012 at 9:23

Thanks for flagging up the Langham Club David. I have been writing about the Langham on and off for about two years (see my post on this site somewhere about it) and the meeting you refer to was organised by me, deliberately using the club as I wanted people to see potential community value. I have also offered the club committee help in several ways over the years and suggested it as a venue when being interviewed for a BBC4 Timeshift documentary (aired in Jan this year) Annoyingly they spelt the name of the club wrong in the credits!

I held my birthday party in there in 2010 and it was a nice venue with catering available as well. As a member, I did not have to pay for the room hire- that is a great thing about clubs- you can have for nothing or next to nothing a great space!

I have also visited another local club, the Wood Green Social, tucked away not far from W.G. tube and done a write up about them for this site, a few months back.

For more information about clubs and their history and how they can become once again community centres, please see www.clubhistorians.co.uk

I am nearing completion of my book about clubs and the Langham figures quite prominently- would be great to see it stay open and be used more!

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on March 2, 2012 at 9:53

Ruth, here's your main post, which links through to various others about the Langham. I've added a tag to this post to link it to those others.

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Permalink Reply by Ruth on March 2, 2012 at 9:58

Thanks Hugh, very helpful. It will provide some context for anyone who doesn't know about the Langham or about clubs in general.

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Permalink Reply by David Schmitz on March 2, 2012 at 13:22

Thanks very much, Ruth, for your postings. I gladly acknowledge that it was your work especially which inspired my interest in the club.

Thanks also to Kamran for mentioning your own connection.

Let's hope that more people contribute to this discussion, and that the membership secretary soon becomes overwhelmed with applications!

David Schmitz

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Permalink Reply by Ruth on March 2, 2012 at 13:34

Cheers David.

And for making me realise that I need to renew my subs... might pop down there on Sunday morning. I am sure they will be organising something for the Jubilee celebrations, maybe a BBQ out front which they are good at doing. Perhaps we should organise a HOL get together there one night! People could have a look around and see what they think.

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Permalink Reply by David Schmitz on March 2, 2012 at 13:43

What a great idea, Ruth. I need to pop in to see if my application has been accepted, so I'll run it past one of the committee members then (assuming that I'm in).

David Schmitz

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Permalink Reply by Carla on March 2, 2012 at 18:58

I'm a mum of 2 young ones 10 and 2 years. If it wasn't for places like the Langham I wouldn't go out. I've been going in there for about 12 years and there's no better cheap way to relax. My children always enjoy themselves and I can sit and have a drink and a game of bingo with good entertainment.

It is a shame that not many people are going in there on a Saturday night you maybe have around 20 people which is a total shame for the singer which is on that night.

We do need to encourage more people to go in there and there do need to attract more of the younger people as the membership now are gradually dying.

I've had a number of parties in the Langham - adults and children - and as well as being able to do your own food you can also hire your own entertainment.

The entertainment committee do try to organise events. Halloween they have a little fancy dress and encourage children to dress up and they throw a nice children's Christmas party in January where the children can play games and Santa visits with presents. Myself and a fellow club member do the food for the children's party voluntarily.

On March 17th St Patrick's day there will be a really great disco provided by micro sound. He's one of the best discos they have and always likes playing requests. He caters for all age groups and always has the top 40 chart songs.

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Permalink Reply by Ruth on March 2, 2012 at 23:31

NIce to hear from you again Carla and thanks for the information about forthcoming events at the Langham. Maybe see you there on 17th for the St Patricks day disco. It would be helpful if the club was online and could let us know here on HoL what was coming up. I'm sure it would help to bring people in. Last time I spoke to committee people there was no internet connection- hopefully this has changed? They could advertise more widely about what is going on in the club and HoL would be a good place to do so.

all the best

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Permalink Reply by Karen Alexander on March 4, 2012 at 9:09

An absolutely superb idea - clubs like this are vital to our community and its a great idea to help them breath new life into it and drive up the membership - I shall definitely be taking a look.