Last updated at 12:41, Saturday, 19 July 2008

BARROW’S Railwaymen’s Club is set to shut after 101 years in business.

END OF AN ERA: Railway Club secretary Ursula Murthwaite is saddened by the closure of the club SHEENAH ALCOCK REF: 0411322

Club officials blame the closure on the smoking ban and 24-hour drinking laws.

The club, at St George’s Square, will shut within two weeks.

Official Ursula Murthwaite said: “It’s absolutely devastating. This club has been open over a century.

“Our customers can’t smoke in here anymore and drinking habits have changed over the past couple of years which means there have been a lot less people walking through the door.

“We just can’t make ends meet.”

Mrs Murthwaite added: “There are people who have been coming here for more than four decades and now there is nowhere for them to go; people who have been members since 1968 and who are still regulars. It is sad for us and for them.”

Entrepreneur Roger McKimm bought the club four years ago and leased the building out to Mrs Murthwaite.

But the current financial climate and fall in customers mean club officials can no longer keep up with running costs.

Mrs Murthwaite now has to sell furniture and items from the club to clear its debts.

She said: “I am selling everything off just to try and pay some bills and end on a high, if you can call it that.”

The Railway is not the only club in Barrow to suffer at the hands of the smoking ban, which was introduced on July 1 2007.

Vickerstown Working Men’s Club and Institute in Central Drive, Walney, and The Engineers Club in Abbey Road, Barrow, have said they could be forced to downsize in the future because of the dramatic fall in customers over the past year.

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First published at 12:06, Saturday, 19 July 2008
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk