Ros Kane, founder of the News from Nowhere Club, writes about why she started the borough’s longest-standing political supper club

There was a time when all over East London (and the rest of the country in fact), there were buildings with names such as Radical and Dialectic Club, Mechanics Institute, Literary Institute, to name a few.

These were dedicated places where local working-class people (well, men anyway) could come regularly for a whole variety of purposes: education, recreation, reading, discussions.

It always seemed tragic to me that these centres have closed. With the arrival of telly, comfortable homes and a privatised way of life, we have few public places to meet our neighbours. Not everyone’s interested in pubs or religious institutions. Where would you go to get to know people in your area?

It also seems to me a huge waste of effort for each household to cook each evening for very few people. When my daughter was little and I had to produce regular meals, I imagined the scene at supper time in every kitchen up and down my street of 120 terraced houses: one person cooking and washing up 365 days a year.

There’s no chance to share this with other people which would give us free time and the benefits of a more social existence, and a richer texture of relationships than nuclear families usually offer.

These thoughts led to the eventual birth of the News from Nowhere Club. The first phase was the Cann Hall Community Canteen. Ten households in south Leytonstone met weekly on a weekday evening at one of our houses on a rota basis. Everyone brought a dish to share. The more people came, the more interesting the meal was.

It was fun but attendance petered out after some months. I wondered whether more people would come if we had a topic to discuss. So for a few weeks, we held afternoon tea parties with a pre-arranged discussion point.

Pleasant enough but it didn’t feel we were getting our teeth into any substantial debate. The next thing to try was an invited speaker. So one Friday evening in September 1996, twelve people squashed into my back parlour to hear the local labour historian Stan Shipley talk about the 1880s and their relevance to the present.

Everyone was invited to bring food and drink: you didn’t need to cook because you knew you would get a meal of sorts at the meeting. Stan’s lecture was followed by questions and discussion. This format has continued for the next 29 years and is how we organise our meetings today.

We named ourselves the News from Nowhere Club because News from Nowhere is the utopian novel of our local hero, the socialist William Morris who lived in nearby Walthamstow. He wrote: “Fellowship is life and the lack of fellowship is death.” We were definitely into fellowship.

At least 35 people turn up each time – some regulars, others come just for one topic or if they happen to be free that night. You don’t have to book or pay (though we invite donations and hold a raffle to fund the rent.)

Our biggest meeting was with Tony Benn. We all competed to make him a pot of tea. He said modestly as he left, “Well, I hope I’ve helped you out”. It certainly put us on the map.

I love the club because it’s a local, accessible refuge for people who eschew superficial socialising. Just turn up. We have a laugh, chat if we feel like no-one is pressurised into talking to a soul) and learn some very interesting things from a fascinating mix of speakers from near and further.

To find the full list of scheduled 2025 talks from the News From Nowhere Club, visit their website, or email: [email protected]

Talks are every second Saturday of the month at St John’s Church Hall in Leytonstone

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