By Pierre Vairo
The Footscray Club, established in 1894, has announced it’s folding after serving folk for 132 years.
The club, once the place to be for Footscray’s movers and shakers, is based upstairs at 43 Paisley Street, in the heart of Footscray. Its humble surrounds and logo exude a turn of century simplicity (the 21st, not the 20th, thanks to a relatively recent renovation). A number of well kept tables separate the small bar from the well loved pool table overlooking Paisley Street. The pool table being the scene of monthly competitions and the home away from home of retired carpenter and pool shark, “Honest” Gary Tomlins.
Mr Tomlins, 79, recalls the pre-renovation clubroom was more befitting of a desirable members-only club, whose history stems from a sizable donation from six founding members; prominent Footscray businessmen. That initial donation bought the building and funded the club’s activities for over a century.
The club originally started, of all things, as a cycling club, seven years before Australia built its first automobile. Its charter specifies the promotion of “social intercourse and good fellowship amongst the membership.” Membership was coveted and tightly controlled, requiring vetting by two financial members. As might be expected of a club founded before women could vote, membership was restricted to “gentlemen who have reached the full age of 21.” Men from outside Footscray and its immediate surrounds could only get month-long honorary memberships. Eventually the club moved with the times and shortly after allowing ‘spirituous liquids’ to be sold over the bar it also allowed women.
The Footscray Club is the latest to fall victim to a changing world, where the internet and social media have replaced opportunities for face to face interaction and belonging. The robust conversations once confined to four walls and a guarded membership list have been swapped for flame wars between anonymous accounts on a social media battleground.
In 2012, the Naval Association of Footscray subbranch closed its doors, its last president confiding that the next youngest member was 20 years his senior. The imposing facade of the Footscray RSL on Geelong Road similarly hides the fact it’s long ceased to be one of Australia’s largest and most active RSLs, despite a recent bump in membership from South Vietnamese veterans.
The historic club’s demise isn’t solely the fault of Zuckerberg and co. A decision by the club’s committee in the 2010s to sell its Paisley Street building to its former tenant, the ground floor baker, played its part. One member at the time quipped: “He used to pay us rent, now we pay him rent!” The non-descript entry on Paisley Street, marked only by a painfully 90s red, white and blue sign, did little to draw the fresh members needed to stay financially solvent, and the cessation of regular food service a few years ago marked another step towards closure.
The club’s manager for the past six years, Roula Glavas, told me membership was tightly guarded, with prospective members needing to visit three times before the committee would accept their application — leading to an aging membership, with most today aged between 50 and 90. The precarious entrance staircase, which does few favours for older members still enjoying the odd pot of Carlton, was also cited in the committee’s decision to close.
A club is more than its landholdings or its food and drink; members are at its core. On an early afternoon visit shortly after the closure announcement, I found a table of blokes having a quiet drink, mourning the expected but no less devastating news. All are locals and long term members. “I just don’t know what I’ll do with myself,” said 76 year old lifelong Braybrook and Maidstone resident Steve, “maybe we’ll head to the Courthouse Hotel?” he said, trying to convince his tablemates. Mr Tomlins suggests the Footscray Mechanics Institute on nearby Nicholson Street, established 1856, might be a good place to shoot some pool and spin a yarn.
Ms Glavas recalls only about 160 members remain. “It felt more like a family than a bar,” she says. “We even fought like brothers and sisters.”
The club has planned a members’ days to celebrate its history, and commiserate. For those who’d like a glimpse of Footscray’s old school charm before it vanishes, let your curiosity carry you upstairs at 43 Paisley Street. Its last day is set for October 4.
Perhaps the final word is best left to the club’s committee: “The doors may be closing, but the legacy of the Footscray Club will not fade. It lives on in the memories, the friendships, and the community spirit that this place helped build.
