A rare privilege this week, to see inside the Mildmay Club on Newington Green. A big barn of a building which has seen better days, but seems to be slowly, slowly bouncing back from the prospect of oblivion.
The Mildmay and a raft of other local radical clubs were in the second tier. Hardly any are still going. This club has had a chequered history, and only moved into its current home after the heyday of late-Victorian radicalism, but it's still hanging in there. Just. And there was something both sad and wondrous about looking round this time-locked sarcophagus of a club - thinking back to what it once was, and ahead to what it could become. Hackney's appraisal of the Newington Green (North) conservation area - which focusses on such fine buildings as the nearby Unitarian Chapel established in 1708 - offers a potted history of the club (and I've nicked the photo from there as well):
The renaming of the club was a clear statement that it had abandoned its radical pedigree. But in earlier years, the Radical in the club's title meant just that. A local vicar complained of the club's 'pernicious influence' - radicalism at that time often went hand-in-hand with freethought. And Tommy Jackson, later a leading Communist, recalled with gratitude help from the club when an anti-Boer War street meeting at Highbury Corner came under attack. Barry Burke and Ken Worpole take up the story: The Tories resolved to smash the meeting up: the Radicals took the precaution of mobilising the gymnasium class of the Mildmay Radical Club (Newington Green) to act as ‘stewards’. Quite a pretty battle was in progress when the issue was decided by the local S.D.F., who, when the fight started, were pitched nearby. Abandoning their own meeting, the Socialists, led by their Chairman, a useful middle-weight of local fame, fell upon the Tories and routed them ‘with great slaughter’ Walking round the club, it's cavernous - on every floor. A snooker room, dark, slightly spooky, with a dozen or so tables ... a bar that's bigger than most pubs ... a big hall with stage, festooned as if for a 1960s talent night, which could easily take a couple of hundred ... a smaller hall in itself the size of many working men's clubs ... and at the top of the building, three (now empty) one-bed flats. There are city states, UN member nations indeed, smaller than this! Once the Mildmay Club had a membership to match. Outside the hall, there's a large varnished wooden board listing the club's wartime casualties (at least, we think that's what it is - the top of the board has been obscured by a rather hamfisted renovation). There are close to four-hundred names. And in the Conservation Area appraisal, there's a couple of grainy old black-and-white photos dating (it says) from about 1905, one of the theatre/hall and the other of the snooker room. Take a look: It strikes me that, more than a century later, the snooker room may still have the same lino. If not, it's a close lookalike. And the snooker hall - they should film Sherlock Holmes in here, and ghost movies, Edwardian thrillers ... it's eery, with a Martian-style greenish light intensified by the lime coloured walls. There are still gas light fittings, adding to the spectral feel and looking sinisterly like secret police torture equipment. Then the most macabre aspect of the room - the walls are lined with snooker cues in their cases, some locked into position. Dozens and dozens of them. In a snooker hall, where on Thursday night, just two of the tables were in use. Some have names and numbers inscribed in a style resonant of a bygone era. I am fairly sure quite a few must once have been wielded by players now seeking out record breaks in the greater snooker Valhalla in the sky. And the bar? Well to judge by the meagre attendance last Thursday, if they sell twenty pints on a weekday evening they are doing well. Which makes you wonder whether this sign really is necessary ... And I mentioned the tentative bounce back in the club's fortunes. Well, it's not going to be sold off for development - details here - and the club committee, whose orders are of course the last word, has had an infusion of new blood. Whether there's new signage to follow, well, I'll let you know.
16 Comments
Caroline
21/9/2014 04:20:56
Fascinating. I have walked past there many times and wondered what was inside. You are right, it would be a great film location for seedy London night life!
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K
22/9/2014 05:12:37
I've never been inside the Mildmay Club, largely because when we moved to Stoke Newington in 1969 we and other middle class incomers tried for many years to join but they did everything they could to deter new members!
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Jon
22/9/2014 14:05:26
Andrew, that's a spot on appraisal. I wish I was a member. Hold on... I am.
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chris beaumont
4/3/2015 06:35:32
I came across my late fathers membership card - he joined in 1947 ....it says on the card 'Members Meeting held SECOND THURSDAY in each month! perhaps I'll turn up next Thursday!?
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Jon
4/3/2015 07:48:57
I'd hold them to that Chris. It's AGM on Sunday. Will be a laugh riot. It's evolving though...
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Joan Tasker
24/8/2015 17:32:28
My grandfather, Ralph Ball use to sing on the stage at the club in the early 1900s.
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janny
26/1/2016 19:26:09
cool
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26/1/2016 19:31:28
Such a very nice club an i visit and play the game and really enjoy with friend and this article give us good info how about this club thanks for sharing .
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Linda Vincent
20/5/2016 18:00:27
Just came across my grandfathers 21 Year Membership medal dated 1907 - 1928. I had never heard of the club so very interested to read your article and all the comments. The medal has a raised picture of the club. I will definitely have a look next time I am in the area.
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Clive More
20/8/2016 04:54:39
I have my late fathers membership card, #519, showing a years payment of 24 pounds, 6 shillings and 7 pence, for 1922. paid on Jan, 15, 1922.He would have been 16 at the time. No idea why he joined?
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Ann Lee
4/10/2017 14:59:57
As a child with my parents in the 50's, I went to the Mildmay to see the music hall entertainment on Saturdays. As there were only a few children there, & me being a 'regular' & always had a seat in the front, I was always chosen to go on stage to pick the raffle tickets out of the hat. Being very shy, I hated this. I remember seeing the sand dance with Wilson, Keppel & Betty also Joseph Lock plus an entertainer who fell off the stage, drunk. I thought this was funny.
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Roger Deans
10/1/2021 12:50:58
My grandad was the doorman there for many years from I would think the late forties until the early 60s..I used to go there with Mum & Dad during the 50s. For a time I worked part time in the bar, probably early 60s.
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Joan Tasker
13/7/2021 07:45:41
My grandfather Ralph Ball in the early 1900s was a tenor and would sing on the stage at the Mildmay Radical Club
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Michael Stotter
20/10/2023 16:09:14
The club featured prominently in our family life. My Uncle - Frederick Stotter was a member of the Scribes for many years, and was a top darts player. His grandfather and great grandfather were also members. As was my father and I. I'd love to hear from anyone who knew Fred or any other Stotters. In the 1930s they lived in Howard Road and ran W.H. Stotter chandler shop.
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Andy H
9/6/2024 23:15:08
It is said that some of the cues belong to soldiers who did not return from WW1.
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John Deakin
22/12/2024 14:42:02
My Grandparents John West & Hilda Rix met at the Mildmay club. My Grandmothers Father was Henry Rix who I believe was a Trustee of the club and a local hairdresser. My mother, Joanna West, who was born in 1939 and has now passed, remembers as a young girl attending the club on many occasions when visiting her Grandmother, Granny Rix, who lived nearby in Stoke Newington. At the time my Mother lived with her family in Crayford as the family moved there when my Grandfather got a job as a Toolmaker at Vickers before the start of WW2. I can remember my Grandfather loving snooker and he used to watch it regularly on his black & white TV at home, I believe I may have a photograph or two of my Mother inside the club in the albums I inherited on her death and will search them out.
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