Always on
This project successfully funded on 9th February 2025, you can still support them with a donation.
Kingswood Estate - Youth Club and Recording Studio
London, Greater London, United Kingdom
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Aim: Help us build a brand new recording studio and youth club space for the Kingswood Estate, that will change the lives of our young people!
Kingswood Arts is a not-for-profit arts centre and cultural hub, designed to support its local community through creative activities. Located in a stunning 32 room historic mansion, we offer a wide range of free activities, events and performances for young people and families, involving music, drama, dance and visual arts.
We aim to support and give voices to marginalised communities and those who face barriers to accessing arts and culture. Our programme is co-created with our local community, and will always be affordable, accessible and relevant.
There's around 2000 people living directly on the estate and the young people here are some of the most underserved in society. According to the indices of deprivation (2019), children here are amongst the 10% most deprived in the whole country.
In our first year of opening we had over 30,000 visitors to our building, and engaged with hundreds of local families! Sadly, during this time the Kingswood Estate has also experienced violent crime, antisocial behaviour and a severe lack of opportunities for teenagers and young adults.
We've worked closely with our community to generate ideas of how we can make a positive difference to these young people's lives - and a recording studio and safe, welcoming space was exactly what they asked for!
We set up a temporary studio in 2023 in and old office and has been regularly used by local aspiring musicians, but we need more capacity to meet the demand!
Kingswood House is a former stately home and was once owned by the inventor of Bovril - so is know locally as Bovril Castle! The council built a housing estate in the grounds of the house in the 1950s, and retained the building for community use. However by 2020 the building was left empty and that's when Kingswood Arts took over to save the building and bring essential services back to this community.
In World War 2, the basement of Kingswood House was used as an air raid shelter. This meant that a large concrete slab and supporting walls were installed to protect local residents from falling bombs!
After the war, when the building became a Library, the space wasn't fit for public use and for the last 70 years has only been used for storage!
However, in Summer 2024 we were able to remove the concrete slab and supporting walls to expose a beautiful Victorian tiled room that was once the House's kitchen.
See below for a picture of the space before and after the demolition.
We have already completed the most difficult parts of this project. Removing the concrete slab and supporting wall, and installing a wheelchair lift so that everyone can access our brand new space.
Now we need your support to finish the project to kit out the space with recording equipment, furniture, lighting, heating and final touches!
Our young people will help to design the final space, and will come up with a name for the brand new youth club on their estate!
Please come on this journey with us and help change young peoples lives!