Link up: Youth centres are opening across the country from Carlisle to Croydon

A beacon in an expanse of public space, Vault sits just outside the bustle of the main high street. With its playful zigzag facade and bright pops of yellow, the building appears compact and approachable – surprising given it hosts a full sports hall, rock-climbing wall and football pitch. You wonder where it all fits, until you see the large volumes around the back.  

OnSide’s chief executive, Jamie Masraff, explains that the right location is key. “The facilities are deliberately placed in neutral, accessible and prominent locations – close to transport, visible in the townscape and open to all – to maximise the likelihood that thousands of young people will walk through the doors,” he says.  

“We would want to avoid industrial areas and out-of-town retail which tend to be accessed by car, as this would be a barrier. We also avoid areas with a high concentration of night-time economy, which could make it unsafe.”

It’s also important that the centre is not imposing to walk up to. Big windows offer a glimpse of what’s happening inside. Although roadworks are ongoing when I visit, once complete, the only barrier between the pedestrianised public space out front and the Youth Zone will be a single-lane bus-only route. Crucially, this means young people can arrive independently, safely and confidently, with public transport delivering them directly to the front door. 

“One of the nicest things about the windows is that they generate excitement for young people,” says Youth Zone head of fundraising and communications Gaby Ingham. “These buildings don’t hide young people away – they put them at the heart of the community.”  

Inside the centre, you can see into some of the 20 programmed activity areas without taking a step further than reception. The rock-climbing wall rises up through the double-height space while, to the sides, rooms for cooking, making and recording are visible in a neat row. 

It costs £5 per year to be a member of Vault plus a charge of 50p per visit. The payment is a nudge, explains Vault’s marketing and communications director Stephen Burton. “It gives the youth that psychological connection to say: I own this space, I respect this space, I trust the staff and I’m not going to mess it up.” Before it fully opened, Vault had already sold over 500 memberships.  

Yet Vault isn’t just for young people; it’s also shaped by them, from picking the name to interviewing future employees hired as youth workers. This helps embed a feeling of ownership and belonging from day one. 

Each Youth Zone has a Young People’s Development Group, who take part in a range of meaningful engagement activities that go beyond branding and graphic decisions. Youths are encouraged to join visits to other Youth Zones and explore different layouts, activities and design approaches, then feed back directly to the property and construction team on what they would like to see included. At Vault, their input is reflected in more private booth-style cafe seating and the inclusion of girls-only sessions. 

On the day that I visit, a small group of children from a nearby school are touring the centre. Some kids head straight to the ping-pong tables while others laser in on the football pitch, visible through one of the windows at the back of the space.  

That sense of easy orientation, allowing young people to scope out the activities before committing, lowers the boundaries of each space and softens the transition from passive onlooker to participant.  

It’s a purposeful design choice by the architects, working to the OnSide brief or “blueprint”, which states that Youth Zones should “invite participation and encourage young people to engage on their own terms”. 

“Young people might want to participate in something but not feel confident enough to actually step through that boundary,” says Ingham. 

One of the only spaces not behind glass is the video gaming area. OnSide’s Generation Isolation report found that 76 per cent of young people spend their free time on screens. OnSide hopes to make it easier for gamers to socialise and provide opportunities for gamers to be drawn towards other activities on offer. 

“We wanted to draw them out, away from the screens if they want to,” says Ingham. “If they’re playing a game of Fifa, we can say: why don’t you go and play a game of football instead?” 

OnSide’s own research found that 34 per cent of young people are very lonely, 20 per cent don’t have a safe place outside of school and 43 per cent have high feelings of anxiety. But 92 per cent of those that attend a youth centre say it makes a positive difference.  

This kind of gentle redirection is a wider spatial objective of the centre so that no single interest is siloed in the space.  

“We deliberately try not to group all the sports together, so they’re scattered around a bit more,” says architect John Puttick.

“Because the sports rooms tend to be quite big, I think if you’re a very sporty kid, you could easily come to the youth centre and just go to the sports bit. But here, to get to the fitness, you’ve got to walk past everything else. And then vice versa, if you’re interested in music, you walk past the climbing wall. Maybe you’re tempted by something you wouldn’t necessarily have normally done.”

Once the centres are up and running, each Youth Zone is operated as an independent charity. Funding comes from patronage or sponsorship from organisations keen to put their branding on a room – such as the recording studio. Vault also has a beauty room with a hairdressing chair, and a maker space with machinery and materials. Member facilities include a professional gym and boxing space. There’s also a fully fitted kitchen to provide £1 hot meals each evening. 

But young people can also just do nothing – and that’s key. In the National Youth Strategy Survey, published as part of the Youth Matters: State of the Nation policy report, one of the top five things young people said they wanted was access to local, safe and accessible public spaces.  

One young person in the report says: “What really stings is the lack of places to just be. Outside of school, there isn’t much for my mates and I to do in person. Few youth clubs, few affordable activities, and often, the thought of getting anywhere safely, especially after dark, is a barrier. We need spaces to just hang out, make friends, and frankly, just have some fun without the constant pressure of ‘what next?’” 

Research has shown the impact goes beyond wellbeing. In her research, Carmen Villa, assistant professor at the Department of Economics of the University of Zurich found that youth centre closures worsened academic performance in exams.  

“These places need to become a third space for people to come and feel safe,” says Vault chief executive Tim Jacques. “Sometimes they need to be outside of home to be safe, don’t they?” 

“At a time when youth clubs are closing, shopping centres and parks feel increasingly off‑limits, and when public perception turns against them, young people are increasingly feeling like they are being shut out of their own communities and their aspirations held back,” adds Masraff. 

“OnSide Youth Zones work because they are designed with young people to send a clear, vital signal: that they matter and are worth investing in.”  
 

Kimberley France is publishing and events assistant at The Developer. She holds a Part 1 architecture degree from London South Bank University and is currently studying at the London School of Journalism