Bookham Youth Centre History
The Bookham Youth Centre which was located at 164 Lower Road (opposite Anchor Pub) was built in the late 1960s and served the local communities for over 50 years.
2006 - Surrey County Council (SCC) undertook a review of all Youth Centres in the County and in 2008 decided that they would close the Centre for youth work and sell it off as the building’s state had declined due to a lack of investment.
2009 - After pressure from the Bookham community, SCC agreed to allow the community to manage the centre providing a short term lease of three years* with a condition that SCC Youth Services were able to provide youth club activities two nights per week.
*Later extended to Feb 2019
In order to manage the Centre a charity was set up, Bookham Youth & Community Association Ltd (BYCA).
Funds were raised by BYCA and a large number of improvements were made to bring the building up to a usable standard e.g a new hall floor. The Centre became the Bookham Youth & Community Centre. Hirings increased and the centre was at maximum use by mid 2010 with a variety of activities & users of all ages.
Youth Work
2009 to 2013
SCC struggled to resource their Youth Club work & was often closed at short notice. Inevitably this led to falling numbers in attendance. In 2011 SCC announced a review of all its youth provision across the county and in 2012, they withdrew their youth worker provision from Bookham leaving it to “community provision”.
2013 to 2019
Fortunately there was community provision by Church youth workers who had been taking up the slack from the SCC. The Leatherhead Youth Project formally took over the youth work under the name of the Bookham Youth Project. Numbers of young people attending the Club activities shot up and numbers maintained until closure of Centre activities in 2019.
2019 (closure) to date
BYP have continued to work with young people within the community but it is not the same as “being there”. They have been very much involved with the input into a new youth & community centre .
The centre before closure in 2019
Journey to a new Centre 2010
BYCA started discussions with SCC to improve the building to become Multi Use and up to modern standards. During 2011 various plans were drawn up but it was concluded that it was cheaper to knock the building down and start again. It’s viable life was coming to an end.
May 2012
A meeting was held at SCC with Council Leader and various Officers and stakeholders were present. A project was set up to deliver a new Centre. Aim was for a new centre to be built before the old one had to be vacated. Initial progress was good and a new 7 year lease to February 2019 agreed. Various options were considered including the favoured site of the Lower Road Rec.
Due to a variety of reasons within SCC / MVDC, matters became delayed.
BYCA engaged with and had meetings with MVDC, SCC, & stakeholders in order to provide a new centre at Lower Road Recreation Ground (LRRG) which is owned by MVDC.
In 2021 SCC agreed to fund a new Centre setting aside a sum of £2.5m.
On 12th May 2021 an Outline Planning Application by Surrey County Council was approved with conditions BUT the planning consent expired in May 2025 due to delays in finalising agreement on the lease between the two Local Authorities and increased building costs that required a re-start.
In April 2025 SCC advised that the planning application to build a single story centre on LRRG had been rejected. In the following September SCC Cabinet formally approved that Officers should now pursue demolition of the old building at 164 Lower Road (opposite Anchor Pub) and submit planning for new one on that site.
April 2025 onwards
BYCA are the “lead” for the stakeholders (BYCA, BRA & LYP) and continues to work with SCC to deliver a new centre at the new location.