Brunswick Club
The Brunswick Club has been running youth activities and is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. There is something for everyone – from the sports fan and the budding artist to the wannabe thesp.
The youth club is a great success, boasting more than 500 members, with at least 60 of those turning up every night. The Fulham club, in Haldane Road, was formed in 1949 with donations pledged by British prisoners of war who were held in the Oflag 79 camp in Brunswick, Germany. It has now grown into a centre offering educational and leisure facilities for children from eight to 18.
There are junior and senior youth club nights during term time and activity schemes during school holidays.
Activities include football, boxing, cooking, quizzes and weekends away,and the Brunswick recently received a £4,500 grant to buy new table tennis equipment. The club also has an internet café and holds awareness sessions on drugs, alcohol and sexual health.
Membership of the club is free, and entry to youth club nights is just £1.50 and is free on a Friday.
You can find out more about The Brunswick Club at www.thebrunswickclub.org.uk
What people say about the Brunswick Club
Lance Francis is 16 and plays football for the Brunswick Club. He lives in Fulham and took time out to talk to us about what he likes to do in the borough.
Q. What do you do in your spare time?
A.I go out with my friends and we go to the cinema, to the shops or we go down to Hurlingham Park and play football.
Q.Where is the best place to go in H&F?
A. I love going down the park or to the Brunswick Club. I think that Fulham Broadway is a good place to go as well – you can maybe get a Nando’s, go to the cinema and enjoy spending time with your friends.
A.I think there could be more places for us to go but I do think that people need to get out themselves, and more should go to youth clubs. I don’t think many people know about them though, so it would be good if they were better publicised.
Q. What music do you listen to?
A. I like hip hop and R&B. I don’t have a favourite singer or group – I like a lot of different music.
Q. What do you get up to at the weekends?
A. I meet my friends and we tend to go down the Brunswick and have a kick-about on the pitch there.
Q. Why do you go to the Brunswick Club?
A. I really enjoy going there. You get to know lots of people and mix with them, and learn to understand each other. Football is my passion and I’ve been playing now for the last five or six years. The club really motivates you and I think that makes you a better person.
Q. What would you tell people who say there is nothing to do?
A. I would say get out there and see what is going on. They could go the cinema or get involved in sport or a youth club.
Q. Do you think young people have a bad image?
A. Yes, sometimes people think we’re all the same, but that isn’t true. Just because some young people do bad things doesn’t mean we are all like that. I think we should be treated equally, but then again we shouldn’t all be tarred with the same brush.
Tom Brown plays for the under 18s football side. “I have had many life experiences, things that I can take into later life with me. Brunswick acknowledges character and brings out the best in people, which it has done for me."
Jamaal Bailey: “Playing for Brunswick is fun and you meet new people and they will stay your friends forever.”
