Save the Museum of Youth Culture

Help us secure a long-term Home

After 25 years of preserving and celebrating Youth Culture, we need your help to open the world's first Museum of Youth Culture dedicated to the scenes, styles and sounds forged by young people over the last century. 

For the last half a decade we have called Printworks our home, having been provided with a secure location for our at-risk heritage materials, educational workshops and public exhibitions, providing us with the much needed space to build the foundations of what ultimately become the world’s first Museum of Youth Culture.

As of February 2022, the Museum of Youth Culture will be homeless.

Due to major works planned as part of the Canada Water Regeneration project we are having to move out, which puts 200,000 rare photographic materials, youth culture ephemera, clothing and public submissions at risk without proper, specialist relocation. Over the last year we have been working hard to find a new space, however they have been either unaffordable, lacking in size, or only short-term temporary lets.

As of 9th December 2021 we are opening an incredible Christmas pop-up at 154-156 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8HL, on which we’ve now been offered a long-term lease. This could be the Museum of Youth Culture's permanent home, encompassing exhibition spaces, public scanning stations, an honesty cafe, education & research spaces, photographic darkroom, basement event space and of course providing a safe home for our physical Museum collections.

(upstairs at 154-156 Shaftesbury Avenue)

This all sounds great, but there’s a problem!

We need to be in a healthy position to fight aggressive counter offers from franchise restaurants and corporations against who we are vying for the space. Although we have been offered the lease long-term, we are still at risk of another eviction and with our imminent move out of Printworks it leaves us in a risky position. 

This is why we need your help!

To be able to fight for the long-term lease on Shaftesbury or secure a different suitable permanent location so that the Museum of Youth Culture doesn’t become homeless, we need additional funding. Without this support, our collections will have to go into inaccessible storage units where they are at risk of damage and our educational programme will have to be put on hold indefinitely. 

(basement exhibition and venue space)

Where the funding will go:

• A permanent safe space to house the Museum of Youth Culture and our growing collections.
• Being able to focus on our core values around education, youth culture preservation, and the conservation of British Heritage, with an ongoing free exhibition and events programme.
• Success will mean young people benefiting from free education workshops, darkroom lessons, youth culture lectures and creative classes.  
• More widely we want to push forward conversations around the lack of affordable cultural and youth spaces in the city. 

For the first time we want to be able to programme a whole year of cultural activity for London. A world’s first Museum of Youth Culture, and we need your help to do that.

You can donate to the campaign or help us spread the word to make the Museum of Youth Culture a reality! 

What are the rewards?

• Each person who donates to our campaign get a thank you with your name on the wall of the Museum! 
• If you donate £20 - £50 you get a thank you on the wall of the Museum and a choice of one our incredible youth culture posters
• If you donate £50 or more you get a copy of our Grown up in Britain Book - fresh off the press, as well as a thank you on the Museum wall of fame and a poster from our shop.

You can also sign up to a monthly direct debit to support our work, which will help cover our ongoing costs!

• From only £3 a month, you will become a Museum member, which grants you exclusive monthly updates, first access invites to events, launches, exhibitions! You will also get a thank you on our wall of fame.
• If you donate between £10 - £20  a month you will receive all the benefits of Membership, plus a 20% discount card to our shop. 
• If you donate over £20 a month, you will receive all the above, plus a copy of the Grown up in Britain book fresh of the press.

We're looking to raise £10,000 in the first month of this campaign to support our move in and set up within the space, after which this will be a rolling fundraiser to support the costs of running the Museum space. A regular donation will be a massive help to our ongoing space costs.

If you’re interested in supporting the Museum of Youth Culture in an ongoing and more substantial manner as a Museum Patron, please get in touch at [email protected]. 

Whatever you can give will make a huge difference: please, give what you can today!