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To: Norwich City Council

Save Keir Hardie Hall

We call on Norwich City Council to use its influence to ensure Keir Hardie Hall's historical context is not lost, whilst utilising the building to help meet the urgent need for decent, energy-efficient, genuinely affordable housing for all.

Why is this important?

This September, historic yet run-down Keir Hardie Hall is being put up for auction. Most people today know it as a working men's club, but it was actually named in 1915 to honour posthumously of one of Britain's lesser known, but arguably most important, statesmen.

Keir Hardie was unusual, both in his own era & our own: a politician who rejected the self-interested pursuit of power & money. His life's work was an attempt to bring about equality, justice and freedom for the poor and marginalised: men, women and children, regardless of ethnicity or religion. During the brutal years of the late Victorian era and the early twentieth century, ideas he advocated (universal healthcare; equality for women; universal state education; countries of empire being entitled to national sovereignty; state pensions; decent housing; employment rights & even animal welfare) were largely ridiculed. After the carnage of two world wars, successive governments were able to realise many of them.

Ninety-nine years after Hardie addressed his final great anti-war speech to an audience in Norwich, we seem to have come full circle: Many of the benchmarks of late twentieth century civilisation are under threat -both nationally and globally. Ninety-nine years from now they may have been written out of history altogether.

Our city, which appears affluent to visitors, is actually blighted by hidden poverty. It's of huge importance that Norwich City Council (run by a Labour majority with a strong Green opposition) acts now to ensure Keir Hardie Hall's historical context is not lost, whilst simultaneously helping to meet our current need for decent, energy-efficient, genuinely affordable, housing for all. Let's give this building a future befitting its past.

Norwich

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Updates

2014-09-24 16:06:28 +0100

500 signatures reached

2014-09-10 13:54:50 +0100

I'm off to hand in this petition to City Hall at 5.30 today. I'm hoping this will show cabinet members that many people care about the fate of this lovely, historic building, and that we believe its future could be one which benefits the many, rather than the few. To his credit, the deputy leader of the council has already offered to meet with me to discuss this matter at a future date - hopefully this petition will help to show that there is considerable public interest in what happens to the site. Many thanks again to everyone who signed, and I hope to be able to update you in due course.

2014-09-03 20:19:29 +0100

100 signatures reached

2014-09-03 11:31:51 +0100

50 signatures reached

2014-09-02 22:08:41 +0100

I've was lucky enough to be given the guided tour of the building on Saturday, by the treasurer of the working men's club. It really is like going back at least 40 years, perhaps many more. It's ironic that St Gregory's Alley and St Benedict's are full of trendy vintage and vintage-style shops, and there's this whole mid-twentieth-century time capsule just sitting there waiting for its future to be decided. The words to Joni Mitchell's 'Big Yellow Taxi' spring to mind...

2014-09-02 17:54:30 +0100

25 signatures reached

2014-08-16 21:12:20 +0100

So, council officers, and cabinet members are saying they regret that they couldn't possibly recommend this site for social, or affordable housing because the council would have to buy the site first, and that would cost too much. So, it very much appears that the Labour cabinet member for resources feels it's too costly to try to conserve for posterity, and convert for truly affordable housing, a building which was supposed to be a memorial to the first MP and leader the Independent Labour Party ever had. Socialism in action, folks.

2014-08-15 22:37:49 +0100

10 signatures reached