Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club

Merry Christmas from BGWLC! Here are some belated photos and videos from our annual in-house Christmas weightlifting competition a few weeks back. Congrats to Alison and Josh on being crowned club champions for 2025! And honourable mentions go to Joe and Ridwan for giving us good split sn**ch demos.

A few lifts from the southern masters this weekend. Always look forward to us hosting this each year!

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Good day out at 's summer open, a nice change lifting outdoors. Thanks for running a smooth competition 🙏

- Jakub's first competition, ending with a 58kg sn**ch and an 82kg C&J PB 👏
- Edwin easing back in at a lighter bodyweight after a small break with 60/80
- Matthias with a 70kg sn**ch and a big 95kg C&J PB, enough for a bronze medal 🏅
- And a shout-out to an injured Matt for still managing 101/122 on his home turf

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International Women’s Day!
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In celebration we’re holding an open day at Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club on Saturday 8 March from 2:30 to 5pm.
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Everyone is welcome - whether you’ve never touched a weight in your life or are a seasoned lifter. We’ll hold a group workout catering for all abilities - but if you just fancy tea and a chat that’s fine too. We’re a welcoming bunch providing a safe space for women of all ages - our lifters range from under 18s to over 70s.
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Come along and lift like a woman!
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Some pics from our Christmas comp last month 🎄
📷:

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🚨Tower Hamlets Council are Evicting London’s Oldest Weightlifting Club 🚨
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👉🏽History Lesson - LCC (London County Council) set up the Bethnal Green Evening / Mens Institute on the site. The purpose of the Institute was primarily to help the men who had served and returned from WW1.
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The centre would have had a variety of classes and pastimes as diverse as carpentry, arts and crafts, pigeon club, gymnastics and an Orchestra. To our knowledge all Inner London Boroughs provided the same, all overseen by the LCC.
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Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club moved into the main building either late 1920s or early 1930, difficult to find the exact date. We continued being part of the classes in the main building until 1948 when the Gym moved into an empty building across the playground where we have been ever since. This can be substantiated as up until 2015 we had a gentleman still training with us who was there. He passed away aged 84 (Ronald Whitham)
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When the LCC was disbanded it was replaced by the ILEA (Inner London Education Authority which in turn was replaced by the GLC (Greater London Council). In 1986 the GLC was disbanded and responsibility of all the Institutions was given to the relevant boroughs that they resided in

Our 2024 club champions Matt and Catherine 👏🥇

Let's work to make sure they're not our last!

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🚨Tower Hamlets Council are evicting London’s oldest weightlifting club 🚨
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What can I do to help?
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Tell people. Tell everyone you know. Most especially, tell Tower Hamlets Council
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We believe that the Council are making a mistake. We think that they don’t know what an asset the Club is to the Borough and to the whole City. We think that like all large organisations, sometimes the actions of one part don’t reflect the intentions of the whole
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So please let them know what the Gym means to you
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If you have personal stories about the Club or the Gym, post them online and make sure that people can see them
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🚨Tower Hamlets Council are Evicting London’s Oldest Weightlifting Club🚨
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Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club (BGWLC) was established in 1926. The club has occupied its current premises on Turin Street since 1948. It is a community-run non-profit organisation
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Earlier this year, Tower Hamlets Council served the Club with a notice informing them that their lease was to be terminated on 31 January. There was no preceding communication, no discussion, just a notice terminating the lease
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🚨 Tower Hamlets Council are evicting London’s oldest weightlifting club 🚨 See link in bio 🚨
•
Tell people. Tell everyone you know. Most especially, tell Tower Hamlets Council
•
We believe that the Council are making a mistake. We think that they don’t know what an asset the Club is to the Borough and to the whole City. We think that like all large organisations, sometimes the actions of one part don’t reflect the intentions of the whole
•
So please let them know what the Gym means to you
•
If you have personal stories about the Club or the Gym, post them online and make sure that people can see them
•
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Congratulations to who had a brilliant performance yesterday over at 's competition.

Joined the 100kg sn**ch club (and in comp no less) ✅
PB total ✅
Third place ✅

Sn**ch - 93(not shown), 97, 100 (PB)
C&J - 114, 118, x122
218 total @ 85 BW

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