The much-loved Holbeck social club (formerly the Working Men’s Club) is facing a considerable uphill struggle in the coming months to keep their doors open, having this week been hit with a £28,000 bill to urgently clear out asbestos from the premises.
The club is reputedly the oldest WMC in the country, having first opened in 1871, before moving to its current site on Jenkinson Lawn (just off Holbeck Moor Road) in 1877 – and plans for their 140th anniversary celebrations next year are already in the pipeline. Indeed, the club has much to celebrate nowadays: it was wracked with debt just five years ago, making a loss of £30,000 per year at the time. But a local volunteer-led take-over in 2012 has seen the club start to thrive again, with a booming and active membership (now 300+), a growing number of events and bookings – and financial stability, just.

However, that’s all been thrown into potential jeopardy by a recent survey that brought to light the presence of asbestos in several key parts of the building. Asbestos was a common building material until the 1990s, but has since been linked with a range of serious lung and respiratory diseases, and is no longer used; it typically presents no danger if left undisturbed, but is normally removed from public buildings where possible.

The committee last week gathered quotes for the work, and were appalled to learn that it would cost at least £28,000 – with some quotes coming in as high as £50,000. They therefore held an emergency meeting yesterday (Sunday 30 October 2016) – and have set themselves the ambitious challenge of raising at least £10,000, to start the work, by the time of the Annual General Meeting in February.
In the meantime, the club very much remains open for business – with events including wrestling (next one on Saturday 3 December), family film nights, weekly quizzes and bingo, community parties, and more.