Camden News: Samuel Lithgow Centre | Fundraising | Regent’s Park Estate

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Camden News - by CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS
Published: 26 February 2009

Councillor Theo Blackwell, director Jennifer Dean-Hill, manager Paulo Pires and chairman Peter Watts celebrate news of the refurbishment with youth centre members

All systems Gow! Youth centre set for revamp

IT nearly didn’t happen, but four years of fundraising at the Samuel Lithgow Centre has finally paid off.
On Monday, standing outside the Euston youth club in Stanhope Street, its members and staff were all smiles as they unveiled plans to bring the 1960s building up to modern standards.
After donations of more than £1million from trusts and local businesses – including taxi firm Addison Lee – made it possible, the doors have now been locked and the hard-hats are days away from moving in.
Chairman Peter Watts admitted this week there were days when he thought the tricky fundraising effort would fail and he would have to hand back the keys to the council.
If that had happened, the building could have been flattened and the land, which is nestled between multi-million-pound developments and council homes, could have been sold off, warned ward councillor Theo Blackwell.
The centre serves the Regent’s Park estate, one of Camden’s largest, and is the only youth club in the area.
Following renovation, it will also offer the area’s first community café. Until then, the Regent’s Park ward will go on being the only one in Camden without a community centre.
The refurbishment will see the two-storey block extended up to the pavement and is due to be completed before the end of the year. A computer suite and a gym will be among the new features. In the meantime its young people will be using makeshift rooms elsewhere.
Ryan Dean-Hill, 13, said: “The building has good memories, but I’m looking forward to the new gym and weights.”

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