Kingsclere Youth Club 

History

Kingsclere has had its own youth club in its own dedicated building since the 1960s. The Youth Club

Building accommodated both the Youth Club itself and other organisations for young people including

Guides and Brownies.

The Youth Club itself has had variable success over the last fifty years depending upon the availability of

good leadership. In the 1990s it was running successfully with a group of local volunteers but about 1995 a

variety of work-related reasons broke up this group and the club deteriorated until it was closed for lack of

leaders, a problem which has bedevilled a number of organisations for young people.

A series of arson attacks, culminating in the total destruction of the building on the Holding Field in 2006, brought full closure.  

In the same year the Village Plan recognised the need for better facilities for young people. This was

followed up by attempts to provide some facility of their own by renting spare capacity at the Village Club

which is itself heavily used. Spare capacity was itself intermittent and irregular and so activities were

restricted.

In September 2011 it was agreed to lease two upstairs rooms at the Village Club for the exclusive use of the

Youth Club. They are small but can be used as a drop-in facility to enable our young people to begin to

rebuild their youth club and space is occasionally available for larger events. However, by its nature this

facility can only be temporary and a move to larger premises will become necessary.

In about 2000 the Borough researched the needs of young people in the borough in order to develop a

strategy. Researched concluded that young people wanted their own facilities which were safe, warm, and

over which they exercised a measure of control; adult presence should be discreet and access to advice on a

wide range of topics was important

Future