Liverpool's tucked away gem in the city centre and the campaign to bring it back to life
For Tony Clarke, the Bronte community centre has not just been his life, it is his history. “I was born around here," he reflects, "my parents were born around here, my grandparents were born around here - and they all came here. My son came here and my grandson has come here. So work out how many generations that is.”
His mum and dad met at the centre, a respite from the hustle of Liverpool city centre hidden in the streets behind Lime Street Station, while the hub provided the backdrop for his childhood and teenage years. Having played such a big role in his past, Tony is now part of a dedicated group working to ensure it can support families long into the future. The names backing the effort highlight the significance of the project, with city icons from Tony Bellew to Jamie Carragher and Lee Butler among those supporting it.
Tucked away on Trowbridge Street, the centre is a secluded gem that lies in the shadows of Lime Street, the state-of-the-art buildings of the Liverpool University campus and the grandeur of the city cathedrals.
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Sat at the end of the street, across the footpath from Bronte Street - from which it gets its name and where, opposite, is the home made famous when the late Queen stopped for tea there back in 1999 - the hub has been at the heart of the surrounding community for decades. More recently, it was a playground for Newcastle United and England star Anthony Gordon, the former Everton winger who was one of many to hone their football skills on the site.
Opened in 1965, initially in a building opposite the current one, the Bronte has provided help, entertainment and a support and social network to generations of families, Tony’s included. Reflecting on the importance of the centre to him, the 49-year-old said: “Mary McNally was my youth leader when I was growing up, she was everyone’s mum and she encouraged so many of us to go down the roads we were passionate about. I wanted to be a DJ, so the centre bought some equipment and I started doing parties here. We had nothing but we were never deprived, because here we had everything.”
Right now, the Bronte is a building site. And therein lies both the good and the bad of the club’s current situation. Around four years ago it was in danger of closing down. The building had long started falling into disrepair and usage fell as the centre struggled to deal with fundraising while also fighting to offer support in one of Merseyside’s most deprived areas.
In stepped Tony. “As I got a bit older I started helping Mary out, just with some bits of fundraising. At the time it was tough, youth centres were closing down and there wasn’t much funding around. The reality was this place was heading towards closure. My first intervention came when I heard the annual Yorkshire residential - the type of thing that was so eye-opening to me as a kid - was in danger of being cancelled. Me and my friend [and fellow trustee] Tony Clegg decided to try and open it back up properly.
"We started on a smaller scale, hosting community events like at Christmas and on Bonfire Night and promoting them on social media. At the time maybe around 10 children a night were coming because there was no guarantee over whether they could get the volunteers to help out with sessions each night. That quickly rose to 40/50 kids a night - so we could see the demand was there. The kids started coming and we moved on to hosting table tennis, we had a sensory room and we got a TV and held movie nights. It was a safe space and that was so important.”
As demand grew, so did momentum - and the belief there could be a future for the Bronte. Plans were drawn up to seek funding and an application was made to the Youth Investment Fund, a Government scheme linked to Children In Need.
Their vision received attention and an initial support package of around £80,000. When officials visited the site and understood the scale of the ambition - and the demand for it - that grew to £3.4m and has since been supplemented by just over £400,000 from Liverpool Council, partly through the Section 106 money paid by developers to fund initiatives surrounding their own work.
The money has been game-changing for the Bronte and work is well underway on an overhaul of the site. What had been in danger of becoming another derelict plot is now set to become a fully-functioning centre that can serve the needs of the huge numbers who live and work around it. From youth classes to a sports hall, to a café that uses fruit and veg sourced from the allotment that will be created on site and tended to by those who use it, the regeneration is a source of excitement. There is even an outdoor five-a-side football pitch that is passed by tens of thousands of people every day but that is unseen by the drivers who pass by on busy Russell Street - the Bronte is a real-life Narnia embedded deep in the city centre.
For all the excitement, there is one reservation. The funding already committed to the redevelopment is not quite enough to cover the full plans, with inflation and developments in the construction industry having led to costs rising since work began.
It means the final pieces of the jigsaw, including the creation of first floor spaces that can be rented out to provide the income for the centre to be self-sufficient, are under threat.
As a result, the Bronte is now campaigning to raise a further £750,000 to enable it to complete its plans to offer a state-of-the-art hub for generations to come. Among those to have already backed it are England star Grace Clinton and youth international Missy Bo Kearns, Liverpool FC icons Carragher and Robbie Fowler, boxer Bellew and DJ Butler.
Development officer Holly Ledger explained: “This will be a place for everyone, it doesn’t matter who you are, where you are from, or where you are in your life, the Bronte will be a safe space where you can be inspired and just be yourself. It will be a home from home, where people can learn skills - a lot of people subject to deprivation are not equipped with the skills to survive and get through life struggling. They shouldn’t have to - places like this should be there for them. A place to combat social isolation and a real hub in the city centre”
The Bronte has now launched its campaign to raise the final tranche of funding and those backing it are urging anyone who is able to support them to consider doing so.
Asked what that help would mean to him, Tony said: “It would mean everything, I am looking at kids now and thinking: ‘Where have you got to go?’ If we can give the children of now half of what I had growing up then that would be unbelievable. What it gave to me, I would love to help give that to others.” You can find more details about the project, and information on how to support the Bronte’s fundraising campaign, HERE