The Victory Club Darnall: Sheffield working men's club which ran for more than 100 years is put up for sale

The Victory Club in Darnall was set up after the end of the First World War and was for many years a mainstay of the community, hosting numerous wedding receptions, birthday parties and other celebrations, along with darts, snooker, dominoes and various social events.

The Star reported in 2019 how the volunteers running the venue on Main Road were fighting to keep it open by raising the £40,000 they said was needed for vital repairs to the building’s leaky roof. They struggled on until they were finally forced to call it a day and close the premises for good in August 2022, posting a poignant final photo of themselves standing in the doorway, accompanied by the message: “Well after all these years, what can we say!”

Its demise was met with great sadness, with one person describing it as the ‘end of an era’, another calling it a ‘sad day’ as she remembered the many ‘happy times’ there, and a third person fondly recalling the ‘good times’ enjoyed there and the ‘salt of the earth’ folk it attracted.

One person summed up the mood, writing: “The end of an era. Weddings, birthdays, wakes, turns, soul nights, not forgetting seaside trips, Saturday afternoons, Sunday dinners, snooker, back yard smokers. So many laughs.”

The property has now been put up for auction, through YOPA Online Auctions, with a guide price of £250,000 and a ‘buy it now’ option available. The sales blurb describes it as an ‘iconic’ building with two floors of ‘sizeable accommodation’, suitable for ‘conversion’ or as a ‘refurbishment project’.

The Victory Club is the latest in a long line of working men’s clubs in Sheffield to have closed in recent years, probably the most high profile casualty being the Shiregreen Club where the stripping scene from the hit 1997 film The Full Monty was famously shot before a live audience.