Spaces that allow the community to thrive have been integral in building London’s musical landscapes. Genres such as grime, garage and afro-swing all came to be from easily accessible community spaces. Most notable of these spaces were youth clubs, which provided young black men from low-income backgrounds with the space to come together and create genres that have been cardinal in UK culture.
In recent years, there has been a decline in government funding for youth clubs. Local authority spending on youth services in England has reduced by £1.2 billion; a drop by 73% in real terms. With over 1200 youth centres being forced to close over the past 10 years, it’s no surprise that we haven’t seen a musical renaissance the way we did with grime, which was an era when those spaces were available for working-class youth to create and thrive.
Grime was born in East London in the early 2000s and was incubated in youth clubs. The pioneers and founders of the genre got their start in these spaces and were able to nurture connections with each other. In an article by Dazed, Slix Fleeingham, a member of grime crew Ruff Squad, said: “Ruff Squad was born in a youth club, we went to the same one as Dizzee Rascal and the late Stormin MC (Nasty Crew).
“Without [that space], I don’t know what would have happened. [It provided] three main things: space, support in the form of youth workers and people from the community who related to us, and the creative resources such as microphones, decks, mixers and speakers.”
It speaks to what successive governments feel is a priority. Areas where grime was born have been subjected to a large amount of gentrification. Trust For London found 53 of the most rapidly gentrifying neighbourhoods are mainly in East London, where average incomes rose by 11% between 2012 and 2020. In those areas, black residents declined considerably, estimating a drop equivalent to about 10,000.
Young people who live in these areas and belong to these demographics not only don’t have a third space, but some are also displaced and forced to move away from their homes and their community.
Lemzi, a 33-year-old rapper and independent artist from Leytonstone, echoes this sentiment: “When I’m driving through an area, I’m seeing loads of privately owned new builds, but they’re not adding another hospital, they’re not adding another youth centre, club, they’re not adding anything of culture.”
Although the government, in the last 10 years, has done significant damage to many young people by making cuts to youth clubs,
With Keir Starmer’s Labour government in power for the first time in 20 years, the government has acknowledged the issue and introduced the National Youth Strategy to deliver up to 250 new or refurbished youth centres, 50 Young Futures Hubs, and new support for youth workers, backed by over £500 million of investment.
On paper, this feels like a step in the right direction and feels like hope, but people who have worked in the youth sectors and have seen the changes over the years don’t seem that hopeful that this strategy will work.
Emma Warren, a journalist and the author of Up The Youth Club, who has also worked in youth clubs before, shared her thoughts on the strategy. She told the Guardian“These reports will always do the same thing. “When I look back on history, they always say: ‘youth work is important’, and then they fail to adequately fund youth work.”
This feeling of hopelessness in the government is also felt by people who lost the youth clubs they once had. Solare, a 21-year-old music producer/singer, shared how important youth clubs were to her and how they developed her as an artist.
“Youth clubs were really important to me. It’s helped me a lot its opened me up to loads of opportunities. I got a lot of mentorship too.”
She further added creative spaces like youth clubs are very needed amongst young people because “there is just so much we can learn from each other”
Youth clubs are a vital part of working class youth culture and has helped create greatest aspects of UK culture such as Grime.
This influence of culture historically has not been valued by past governments and has systematically stripped away leaving working class people feeling forgotten and undervalued.
The current government is starting to see value but scars left from past make it hard for the change to be accepted.
