Club History

In 1977 the Chairman of the Whitstable Branch Labour Party, Bob Saunders, announced at a meeting that he had heard that the proprietor of the Social Club under the arches was retiring and that the premises were available to let.
It was decided to go ahead and members were invited to become “Founder Members” at a cost of £20.

“The club was originally sited under the arches of the railway bridge in Belmont Road which it leased from Railtrack. Part of the building was once the waiting room and ticket office for the old town railway station, and later a pigeon club. The building was very damp and dingy and suffered from rain water coming in through the roof. Members got to know the times of the trains rumbling over head. The building is now a new restaurant called the Whistlestop which opened in April 2004.”

After a lot of hard work the Club was formally opened on August Bank Holiday in 1978.

The Back room of the old Club was used regularly for fundraising for many political and topical events, including the Miners Strike and the African National Congress.
Many bands, including Rubber Biscuit, Country Counts, Door Marked Summer and Henry McDermot from Wings played there together with Alan Davies from Jonathan Creek who performed his first gig at the old Labour Club.

The Club moved to its new premises in 1996. The new building was the old Golden Lion Pub, a Grade II listed building. Many improvements had to be undertaken before we were allowed to move in.
The building had to be re-wired and a fire escape installed in line with Health and Safety Regulations. The building work, decorating, etc, etc was masterminded by Andrew Ling, and the “A” team as they were affectionately known consisted of Andrew, Julian Spurrier, Paul Witheral, Ray Ripley, Mick Carey and John Annoot. The building work took a total of 4 weeks to complete and was a mammoth task.
The Club was officially opened by the Rt. Hon. Margaret Becket on the 24th October 1996.

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