Popping-in?

Our studio is filled with light and music.
There are multiple meeting rooms, a well stocked kitchen, and an indoor garden (with fishpond). Talk to us about access needs, environmental factors and any accommodations we might make to enhance your visit. Pop-in for tea and stay to use a spare desk for as long as you need.

11 Greenwich Centre Business Park,
53 Norman Road, Greenwich
London SE10 9QF

Cog is a Certified B Corporation

Public transport

We’re next to Greenwich train and DLR station. We have a door right on the concourse but it’s different to our postal address.

From Greenwich rail platform

This video shows the route to take from the train that will arrive at Greenwich rail station from London Bridge. There's a gentle slope next to the staircase.

From Greenwich DLR station

This video shows the route to take from the DLR that will arrive at Greenwich DLR station from Bank. There's a lift at the platform level if that's useful.

By car

If you have to come by car, we have a couple of parking spaces. We have a charging point that you are welcome to use if you have an electric car. Call ahead and we'll make sure the spaces are free. Use our postcode (SE10 9QF) to guide you in.

Get in touch

We’d love to hear from you. Use whichever medium works best for you.

11 Greenwich Centre Business Park,
53 Norman Road, Greenwich
London SE10 9QF

Cog is a Certified B Corporation

New project enquiry

It's exciting to chat about potential new projects. We don't have a ‘sales’ team or a form to fill in. Call us or give us a little detail via email and we'll get straight back to you.

enquiry@cogdesign.com

Website support

If you're a client then you'll be best served by calling us or contacting us via ClickUp, otherwise you can use this dedicated email that reaches all of the digital team.

digital@cogdesign.com

Finance questions

This email hits the inboxes of the people who deal with our bookkeeping and finances.

accounts@cogdesign.com

Just want a chat?

Sometimes enquiries don't fall neatly under a heading, do they?

hello@cogdesign.com

Cultural Calendar

A round-up of recommendations and reviews, sent on the first Friday of each month, topped-off with a commissioned image from a talented new illustrator. Sign-up and tell your friends.

Sign me up Cultural Calendar

Cog News

An irregular update of activity from our studio. Showing off about great new projects, announcements, job opportunities, that sort of thing. Sign-up and tell your friends.

Sign me up Cog News

Not Just Beer and Bingo! A social history of working men’s clubs

Not Just Beer and Bingo! A social history of working men’s clubs

Having been a member of a Working Man’s club, and always being fascinated by the culture behind social clubs, when Ross suggested we go to a talk at the Bishopsgate Institute for a talk on the social history of Working Men’s clubs, I instantly wanted to go.

When I was 15 I moved from the relatively urban town of Croydon to a small village with just a small post office, a greengrocers and a Working Man’s club. I didn’t know what a Working Man’s club was, and didn’t find out until I was 19 when a friend invited me along.

I was, for some reason, nervous, there seemed to be something of a secret society about “The Club”. I was signed in and entered, what at first glance seemed to me, a normal pub.

But I began to notice things were a little different. There was a notice board with posters for local events and one for the clubs weekly “meat raffle”, kids were running around playing happily with one another, and there seemed to be a real sense of community.

In recent years, whenever I’ve been back to the club, I’ve noticed numbers have dwindled and the sense off community isn’t as strong as it once was, so I was curious as to what Ruth Cherrington had to say on the subject.

Ruth’s own club had burned down just 5 weeks before the lecture, so there was a something of a nostalgic feel to the evening, and a cry for people to not give up on the social club.
ross@cogdesign.com

The lecture was part of a series of events at the institute named Girls & Boys. It was held in the library of the institute, which really is beautiful. Surrounded by a selection of books about labour and socialist history, the lecture set out to discuss the history of the clubs, why they were set up, and how women came to find a place in them.

Ruth explained the history, and why the clubs were set up, as a place for working men to socialise, outside of the pubs. Interestingly we were told that many of the clubs were set up as teetotal venues with the emphasis on leisure activities such as games and reading, some clubs even had libraries set up which members could borrow books from.

As the lecture continued we learnt more about the history and I did wonder how the talk found its way onto the Girls & Boys series, Ruth spoke of the role women played in the clubs, but I feel it was shoehorned in a little bit, just to fit in with the theme of the series.

It seemed the point of this lecture was mainly to educate us in the fact the Working Men’s clubs were set up to bring communities together, and to highlight the decline in these institutions across the country. Ruth’s own club had burned down just 5 weeks before the lecture, so there was a something of a nostalgic feel to the evening, and a cry for people to not give up on the social club.

Although I’m not sure it fit in with the theme of the series it was a part of, I don’t think that really mattered, I found the lecture interesting and insightful, enough to perhaps make a couple of people in the audience interested enough to go to their local club and see first hand what they’re all about.