‘A safe space to come and just be’: the radical, utopian return of Britain’s youth clubs

After a decade of austerity closed more than 1,000 centres, the government has promised £500m to renew youth services. We tour a glossy new venue in Preston – and a girls-only one in London Preston, Lancashire is no stranger to trailblazing architecture. The city’s bus station, the largest in Europe when it opened in 1969, is a brutalist masterpiece. Next month, a new public building opens opposite the bus station built with similar aspirations to transform local lives: a youth centre. To a generation raised when cuts had gutted services – between 2010-11 and 2023-24, local government spending on youth services fell by 73% and more than 1,000 youth centres closed – the idea of a place designed just for young people may seem as anachronistic as coach travel, but 2026 brings big changes to youth services in the UK.