It's 10am on a Friday morning, music is playing and a keep fit class is in progress as I arrive at the Thomas Wilson club in Gateshead.
A notice board with posters about upcoming live music dates and plans for Easter catch the eye and the next impression is of lots of doors leading off a long corridor to far more rooms than you'd expect from having seen the outside. The club - full name Thomas Wilson Working Men's Club & Institute - at the top of Chowdene Bank in Low Fell has been part of the community now for more than 100 years and it is keen to mix enough of the traditional with the modern to ensure a lengthy future too.
It hasn't always had its Tardis-like interior - which includes a huge concert room, a lounge, TV room - currently decked in black and white bunting following the busy day of the Wembley final - and a long bar which leads to an outdoor beer garden. The club started out as basically a hut, with a stove in the middle, and part of the original clubhouse roof still can be seen in the concert room which was built over it, says chairman Jeffrey Humphreys who is showing me around.
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In November, 58-year-old Jeffrey will clock up 25 years as a club member and he well remembers the good days when working men's clubs were thriving. When he joined, the Thomas Wilson Club - which is named after the Low Fell poet and entrepreneur born in 1773 - had a membership of 17,500 and takings were £20,000-£30,000 a week.
"I remember it was chock-a-block and when you tried getting a drink at the bar you were like sardines," he said. "The queue outside could be down the bank." When doors opened, people would charge in, rush to get a glass of water and then place it on a table to claim their space before going to the bar to get a 'proper' drink.
Then, as now, everyone would know each other. At quieter times a newcomer might innocently take a chair at one of the empty tables only to be told that it was a regular's seat.
Now there are 720 members, mainly older people who have been there for years and no doubt appreciate the friendly faces and company more than ever following the isolation of lockdown. But numbers are not back to what they were before the pandemic.
Len Bell, who only recently took over as club secretary, said: "Like everyone in this type of business - pubs, restaurants and clubs - we're suffering. During Covid people got used to being at home and it's been difficult to get them to come out again.
"And with the cost of living going up, they don't have the disposable income they used to have - instead of 30 quid in their pocket, they might have 10." It doesn't help, they both agree, that supermarkets are able to sell alcohol even cheaper than they can.
But where clubs score, in a way that the more transient nature of many pubs won't, is in that social side. It's the club's loyal regulars who keep it going despite the challenges facing the industry, with the cost of living crisis hitting so soon after the pandemic.
The club's electricity bills alone cost £1,000 a week. Len, coming up to 71, has worked in the wider licensing trade for years and already had seen plenty of changes. The Thomas Wilson club, he says, is coping but just.
"Luckily here we have a bedrock of members who support the club. But it's open to everybody." The focus is the same as for any business he points out: to "try to reduce costs and increase trade".
"We are just about holding our head above water. But we need to do better." Many people may be surprised that social clubs are surviving at all given the competition of pubs and bars but they have traditionally filled a niche in the community.
The Thomas Wilson is keen to attract younger people. "Young people are the next generation for running the club," says Jeffrey and Len thinks you just have to get them in to find out what's on offer. And contrary to popular belief you don't have to be a member to do that.
"I think they'll change their mind if we get them through the door," says Len.
There's a full-size snooker table in the bar for one thing, plus a pool table and darts board. There's live bands at weekends; Sky Sports is back after a gap and you can get a pint of beer (John Smith's) for £2.30. It's probably the lager that will appeal more to younger customers and it is already overtaking beer as the best seller.
Besides the likes of Fosters at £2.85 there's premium Kronenbourg at £3.20 - the same price as dark fruits cider - and Madri, the dearest lager, at £3.60. Wine is just £2.15 a glass and there's plenty more choice on the menu from Red Bull (£2) to Tequila Rose, £2.10, and £1.70 spirits.
At one time the club would pack out. The concert-function room holds 326 people - more if the tables and chairs are removed; the bar a further 300; the lounge around 120 and the TV room 70 - and all would be full.
The function room is about the only one in the area and still gets busy. Besides hosting regular live music and daily bookings for the likes of the keep fit class, it is well used by the community for everything from family celebrations to funeral wakes. It comes into its own during concert nights and for shows like the annual pantomime which is arranged by the club's vice chairman Carol Robson who is now busy planning a Family Fun Day for Easter Monday, with bright adverts on the walls advertising the likes of an egg competition, face painting and a disco.
From hosting huge charity fundraisers to being a foodbank collection point, the club runs a busy programme, with regular bingo, raffles and card games on the go. Unlike the old days when non-members would have to be signed in by a member, anyone is welcome for a nominal fee of 50p although of course the club would love newcomers to join and boost its numbers.
Membership is £19.50 and then yearly subs are £5. At one time there was no charge for a 'lady member' - but then strict rules applied that did not allow women in the bar. The occasional warning cry of 'lady in the bar, get out!' died out along with that free entry. Equality has come at a cost! jokes Len.
The club's history is everywhere, such as in framed certificates including one of its initial membership to the Working Men's Club and Institute Union, dated October 24, 1919. Among the posters on the walls are typical club rules such as a notice about the 'white slip' that must obtained before any non-member can play 'any gaming machines, bingo, key draw or ticket machines'.
But in truth it's a friendly place and there's no stuffiness around any formalities. Len is keen for newcomers just to give it a try. If the club can only get to a certain level, he says, it can then pretty much sustain itself.
Other than bookings for classes, the Thomas Wilson's opening times are from 5pm to 11pm on weekdays and from noon at weekends until 11.30pm. For more information about what's coming up at the club, follow its Facebook page here.
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