Introduction
First serving as a public hall, the Epsom Club was established in 1883. Situated on the corner of Church Street and Upper High Street, the former Station Road, the main door had a plate above it with the inscription ‘Epsom Town Club’. It only allowed men to enter through the front door, while women were forced to enter through side entrances to the upper floor. Epsom, then a town of health-improving salts and the home of one the top horse races, was a wash of horses, carriages and carts and new coal and timber sidings opposite the original Epsom railway station.
The Birth
The Epsom Club was born out of a townhouse called The Hollies—a rented watering hole for local business people. A home owned by the Barnard family, the club charged a £1 membership fee, and for this, they received a share certificate. Initially having 86 members, this had doubled to 170 fifteen years later. Heated by coal fires, the club had a snooker room upstairs with three snooker tables. The garden was the size of a full-sized bowling green, and horses were tied up outside with the occasional appearance of a car.
The club got a massive cash injection when a local bank manager invested £3,300, the equivalent of £138,000 in today’s money in 1936. This debt was paid over 23 years ago. In the 1960s, a one-arm bandit was introduced to the club, and women were only given full membership when a groundbreaking vote was taken in 2003. The first female member was the late Margaret de Lyon, and in 2010, the members elected their first female secretary, Mary Dixson.
In 1986, a new bar and restaurant were built for £70,000, and two fruit machines were installed. A club that Jimmy White regularly uses to practice who lives in the area. It is a highly viable club with a surge of private functions in recent years. The brainchild of Harry Cole, the Epsom Club continues to go from strength to strength, with three professional snooker tables and a number of club competitions.
