ANOTHER York institution is struggling to make ends meet and may be forced to close in the coming months.

The New York Club & Institute, a working men’s club in Blossom Street, is one of the oldest in the city, recently reaching its 90th anniversary.

However, the club has been unable to attract new members in recent years and numbers have dropped by half to around 320 - a far cry from its heyday in the 1970s when the last serious money was invested in the building that houses it.

The building, which is sandwiched between two Premier Inn sites, dates to 1870 and was originally a station master’s house. It was purchased from LNER in 1934 and the frontage is Grade-II listed.

Club secretary Dave Matthewman is not optimistic for the club’s future. He said: “We’re struggling financially and the building needs a lot of money spending on it to bring it back up to scratch.

“But would that bring new members in? I don’t think it would.”

He said Premier Inn put in an offer to buy the building several years ago, but the membership at the time voted to reject it.

At the club’s AGM a couple of months ago, a majority of the 60 or so members who attended agreed it should now be sold, but any formal ballot would require a 75 per cent majority.

There is no current offer, but Dave said he had approached estate agents to sound them out ahead of a special meeting scheduled for September 16.

Dave said: “I’ve been coming here for 40 years, but at the end of the day, I can’t see how it can stay open. I don’t know what to do to encourage youngsters.”

The New York is just one of a number of working men’s clubs considering big changes.

Earlier this year, members of the historic Tramways Club voted to bulldoze the club’s current home in Millgate to build a smaller property in its place, but plans are still up in the air.

Tramways had also been struggling financially, but the plan could potentially save the club from closure.

Another decades-old social club, The Burton Lane Club, in Bootham Crescent, decided to weigh up its future in January.

It is facing the loss of £20,000 a year when York City FC move to its new site at Monks Cross.

Meanwhile, The Post Office Employees Social Club, on Marygate, which opened in 1937, made the decision to shut up shop in April, citing “changing entertainment habits and a lack of interest from younger generations”.

Premier Inn was contacted for a statement, but had no comment at present.