Youth club given a Banksy 'living month to month'

Broad Plain and Riverside Youth Project, in Easton, is struggling to pay its £2,000 electricity bill

A 130-year-old youth club which once benefitted from the sale of a Banksy mural says it is currently living "month to month" after funding cuts.

Broad Plain and Riverside Youth Project is struggling to pay its monthly £2,000 electricity bill, with manager Dennis Stinchcombe blaming budget cuts.

"I had to make two of my staff redundant which now leaves just me and one other to try and keep us alive and open," Mr Stinchcombe said.

A spokesperson from Bristol City Council said it invests in organisations across the city "to ensure all children and young people have equal opportunities and access to support".

The club was gifted a Banksy mural - left on a doorway yards away from it in 2013 - which was sold for more than £560,000.

The anonymous street artist wrote to the club afterwards, saying he was "a great admirer of the work done at the club".

The Mobile Lovers mural was left on a doorway yards from the club in 2013

The Broad Plain Boys Club opened in 1894 in response to serious concerns around poverty and crime affecting young boys.

Mr Stinchcombe said: "Many great young men have grown up through the club and it was full of young people then as it is now in 2024."

The club manager says they have "changed with the times" and now welcome both both boys and girls to the club.

Mr Stinchcombe says the club has "never closed" despite operating for 130 years

Callum O'Connell, 29, who has worked alongside Mr Stinchcombe as a social worker and coach for 12 years, said he has seen young people "transformed" at the club.

A Broad Plain member at eight years old, Mr O'Connell said funding cuts meant the club could no longer support young people through the Alternative Learning Provisions (ALP).

"The sad thing is I loved working in the ALP - we would be working with young people that were not getting on at school and provide lessons and sport from 8:30am - 3:30pm."

On the days when the young people were excluded from school, the club would start the day at Broad Plain with tea and toast.

This would be followed by lessons and breaks involving sports such as boxing or climbing.

"So many people benefit from a place like ours," he said. "Our main goal was to integrate them back into mainstream schools."

Now the club is only able to offer evening club sessions.

Dennis Stinchcombe and Callum O'Connell at Broad Plain Boxing Open Air Show at Broad Plain Rugby Club in 2008

ABA Boxing Champion Sam Pomphrey was supported through his boxing career by the club where he said he had "some of the best times".

One of seven children, all of his siblings "had a go" at boxing at the project.

Mr Pomphrey, who is now a firefighter with Avon Fire and Rescue, was able to box for England at amateur level with Broad Plain and Riverside Youth Project.

Now retired from the sport due to injury, Mr Pomphrey told the BBC he started going to the club at 10 years old.

Sam Pomphrey (bottom row, far left) on a Broad Plain trip to Cyprus around 2009

"Dennis has helped me in so many ways, he's always been there for all of us.

"He's probably helped thousands of young people and has inspired me to be a foster carer in the future," Mr Pomphrey said.

The former boxer said the club provided many life experiences, with his childhood full of summer camps, day trips and mountain biking.

"It will be very sad if it closes, there's so much history there," Mr Pomphrey said.

'Inclusive and accessible'

A spokesperson for Bristol City Council said: “Working with our partners in the youth and play sector, we have invested in community-based youth and play services for the benefit of children and young people aged 8 – 19, or up to 25 for those with SEND.

"These services are designed to be inclusive and accessible to all children and young people, regardless of background, socio-economic status, or other potential barriers. We fund organisations through our Youth and Play Grant process.

"The Youth and Play grant fund has been allocated to 26 individual youth and play organisations and they provide 67 sessions, with some sessions specifically targeted at Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller (GRT) youth, young carers, LGBTQ+ youth, and asylum seekers and refugees."