“Huge announcement coming soon.”
This vague phrase, splashed across our social media channels on Tuesday, 5th June drew out 200 people to our Tuesday run that night. Was the announcement good news? Bad news? Was the club ending? Would a membership fee start being charged? So it was fantastic to be able to announce the exciting news:
London City Runners has finally found a proper home!
The club has an incredible backstory that many of our members already know. Since 2010, the club has gone from a group of runners leaving their bags in Tim’s flat to having more than 9000 runners register over the years and regular turnouts of more than 100 runners to a single session! City Runners has been built on an extraordinarily simple formula – it’s free to join, it’s for all levels, and it’s encouraged to socialize over a drink afterwards! And it’s our commitment to our members that this will never change.
As we’ve grown, we’ve always relied heavily on the bars and pubs around Bermondsey to provide us with a meeting point. But our success means that we’ve inevitably flooded these venues with runners and outgrown the space rapidly. In eight years, we’ve had to move venues 8 times!
It was always an obvious solution – the club needed its own home. Finally, after many years of thinking and planning, that idea has finally come to fruition. We’re so thrilled to announce that we have secured a lease on a railway arch and will be developing it into the special home that City Runners deserves!
Having our own venue means that we can expand the offerings of the club beyond our three weekly sessions and ensures that revenue made from drink and merchandise sales will go straight back into the club! Apart from holding runs on other days of the week, we can now host a variety of awesome running-related events and most importantly, become the unique social hub for runners that London needs. This is a one-of-a-kind endeavor, and one where we really need your help to succeed!
Since announcing this exciting news, we have been flooded with generous offers of help from our members and the local community, including three of our former venues who are providing us with welcome advice and guidance as we prepare to open our doors. There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes to get us open as soon as possible, but we also need your financial help to make the club’s dreams a reality!
Some of our lovely members who volunteered to spend their Saturday cleaning!
That’s why we’re launching our very own crowdfunding campaign this week! Whether you’re a member of our club, a runner in London who is excited by the idea of a central social hub, or a runner anywhere in the world who loves our idea, please share our story and get behind our crowdfunding campaign when it launches in a few days. We have some awesome pledges for you all that we can’t wait to announce, and seriously appreciate any amount that you can give. Please stayed tuned to our social media channels for the launch of our campaign this Friday and for more exciting information about our plans in the lead up to the launch!
Finally, thank you all for your incredible support of the club! With your help, we can open something truly unique for London.
-Kerry
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