Heworth and Bootham Conservative Club to reopen after £200k revamp

Heworth and Bootham Conservative Club in East Parade, Heworth, has a new bar in a new location, with a larger seating area for an increased membership.

New gents and ladies toilets have been installed upstairs and new disabled toilets on the ground floor.

There is also new lighting, seating and carpets, the roof has been replaced and, in a boost for sports fans, the club is having Sky and BT Sport installed.

Club president Roy Walker says it is a ‘new look club that we can now be proud of'.

He said the money invested in the revamp came from the sale of the old Bootham and Monk Ward Conservative Club in Clarence Street, which is set to be demolished to make way for a residential development.

The Press reported in February how the old club, which dated back more than a century, had closed for good and the site sold after members decided on the merger.

Norman Harriss, former chair of the Bootham club, said the building had been in a deteriorating condition for many years, for example with regularly leaking ceilings, and membership had declined from around 400 to about 130.

He said the original plan had been for a developer to knock down the building and build a new clubhouse on the ground floor, with student flats above for students from the nearby York St John University, but the deal fell through.

Mr Walker said yesterday that the membership of the club in Heworth had almost doubled to about 300, following the transfer of all members from the Bootham and Monk club.

However, some members living in the Bootham area might not wish to travel across the city to the new club.

He said the refurbishment of the club had taken a little longer than anticipated, and the ‘challenges of Covid didn’t help matters'. The club is set to reopen at noon on Saturday, October 9. It will open from 7pm to 11.30pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and noon to 11.30pm on Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.