Devas Club

{{Infobox organization

| name = Devas Club

| full_name =

| image = The Devas Club for Young People.JPG

| alt = The Devas Club premises

| caption = The Devas Club premises in Stormont Road, Battersea, south London, opened in 1970

| abbreviation =

| named_after = Jocelyn Devas

| formation = 1884

| founder = Jocelyn Devas

| founding_location = London, England

| type = Educational institute (1884–1970); Club (1970 onwards)

| status = Open

| purpose = Education; youth club; sports club

| headquarters = 2a Stormont Road, Battersea{{cite web| url=https://www.wandsworthfringe.com/get-involved/venue-list/devas-club | title=Devas Club | work=Wandsworth Arts Fringe | publisher=Wandsworth Council | accessdate=18 July 2022 }}

| location_city = London

| location_country = United Kingdom

| coords = {{coord|51.46492|N|0.15648|W|display=inline,title}}

| origins = University College, Oxford{{cite book| first1=Anne | last1=Ockwell | first2=Harold | last2=Pollins | chapter=27: ‘Extension’ in all its Forms | editor1-first=M. G. | editor1-last=Brock | editor2-first=M. C. | editor2-last=Curthoys | title=The History of the University of Oxford | volume=VII: Nineteenth-Century Oxford, Part 2 | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=2000 | pages=661–688 | isbn=978-0199510177 | doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199510177.003.0027 }}

| region_served = London

| products =

| services = Youth education, sports, activities, events

| methods =

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| language = English

| owner =

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| website = [https://www.devasclub.org/ devasclub.org]

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}}

The Devas Club for Young People (the Devas Institute until 1970{{cite news| first1=T. P. | last1=Gee | first2=J. H. S. | last2=Wild |author-link2=John Wild (priest) | title=Social Work in London: the Univ. Connection | magazine=University College Record | volume=VII | issue=5 | date=1979 | pages=251–259 }}) is a youth club in Battersea, south London, England, which provides sporting, educational and creative opportunities for disadvantaged youth.{{cite book| first=Terry | last=Powley | date=2014 | title=Getting On With It: A History of London Youth | isbn=978-0957087323 | publisher=London Youth }}{{cite web| url=https://www.univ.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Univ-and-the-Devas-Club.pdf | title=Univ and the Devas Club | publisher=University College, Oxford | location=UK | format=PDF | accessdate=18 July 2022 }}

History

The Devas Institute was founded by Jocelyn Devas, a student at University College, Oxford, in 1884, as a ‘Club for Working Lads’ with the aim of providing young men with job skills.{{cite web | url=http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/whereilive/southlondon/wandsworthnews/4687916.Battersea_youth_club_celebrates_125th_birthday/ | title=Battersea youth club celebrates 125th birthday | website=www.thisislocallondon.co.uk | access-date=7 February 2010 | archive-date=4 June 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604054109/http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/whereilive/southlondon/wandsworthnews/4687916.Battersea_youth_club_celebrates_125th_birthday/ | url-status=dead }}, Wandsworth, [http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/ This is Local London], 19 October 2009. The club was originally called University College House and was in a room above a coffee shop in Stewarts Road.{{cite book| first=Robin | last=Darwall-Smith | author-link=Robin Darwall-Smith | title=A History of University College | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=2008 | page=410 | isbn=978-0-19-928429-0}} Following Jocelyn Devas's death eighteen months after founding the club, in a climbing accident on the Matterhorn, his father offered a substantial endowment if his college friends would carry on the work in Battersea.{{cite magazine | title=Oxford youth club celebrates 125 years | url=http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/9B78636E-1172-42AE-BC97-0AC739CD2FA7/0/bLL81forweb.pdf | magazine=Lambeth Life | publisher=Lambeth Council | location=UK | date=1 November 2009 | access-date=7 February 2010 | archive-date=3 March 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303004657/http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/9B78636E-1172-42AE-BC97-0AC739CD2FA7/0/bLL81forweb.pdf | url-status=dead }} {{Cite web |url=http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/9B78636E-1172-42AE-BC97-0AC739CD2FA7/0/bLL81forweb.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=7 February 2010 |archive-date=3 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303004657/http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/9B78636E-1172-42AE-BC97-0AC739CD2FA7/0/bLL81forweb.pdf |url-status=dead }}'', Lambeth Borough Council, London, page 15, 1 November 2009. Oxford House helped the club early in its development.{{cite magazine| last=Arnold | first=F. | date=1 April 1888 | title=The Oxford House and Toynbee Hall | magazine=The Leisure Hour: An illustrated magazine for home reading | pages=274–279 }}

The Devas Institute was constituted first under a scheme set up by the Charities Commissioners in 1901, when University College Oxford and then Battersea Polytechnic Institute provided members of the Management Council for the Devas Institute.{{cite book| chapter=The Devas Institute | title=Parliamentary Papers 1850–1908 | volume=73 | publisher=H.M. Stationery Office | author=House of Commons | date=1904 | pages=305–308 }} The institute moved to larger premises in Thessally Road in Nine Elms in 1907. During World War I, the Devas Institute site was used as an air raid shelter.{{cite web| url=https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/hfl_he_2020/full_record.cfm?prnid=10670 | title=Devas Institute, 82, New Road (PRN: 10670) | work=Home Front Legacy 1914–18 | first1=Claire | last1=Corkill | first2=Chris | last2=Kolonko | date=2020 | publisher=Archaeology Data Service | location=UK | accessdate=29 July 2022 | doi=10.5284/1059297 }}

The comprehensive redevelopment of the Nine Elms area to build New Covent Garden Market prompted a further move, to a purpose-built building on Stormont Road near Lavender Hill in 1969, in a notably Brutalist architectural style.{{cite book| title=Survey of London: Battersea, pt. 2. Houses and Housing | publisher=University of London for the London County Council | date=2013 | pages=129, 296 }} It was renamed the Devas Club in 1970. The club was reconstituted in 1974 by order of the Charity Commissioners under independent trustees.

The main purpose of the institute's work was initially educational, but as this function became increasingly taken over by the London County Council, sporting and creative activities began to take precedence in the programme. A separate club for girls was started in 1960, which was later merged with the main activity of the club. The club maintains a small meeting space for alumni of the club ('old boys').

The club celebrated its 140th anniversary in 2024.{{cite magazine| url=https://www.univ.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/The-Martlet-Winter-2014.pdf | title=130 Years of the Devas Club | first=Tim | last=Gee | magazine=The Martlet | publisher=University College, Oxford | location=UK | page=12 | issue=2 | date=Winter 2014 }}

The club today

The Devas Club is primarily targeted at young people between 11 and 19, with specialist programmes targeted at the age range 8 to 11. It aims to enable young people, particularly the disaffected and at risk, to reach their full potential as responsible, talented individuals and as active participants in the community.

The building includes a gym, a recording studio (the Stormont Studios{{cite web | url=http://www.stormontstudios.co.uk/ | title=Stormont Studios | website=archive.today | accessdate=5 May 2013 | archive-date=5 May 2013 | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130505101826/http://www.stormontstudios.co.uk/ | url-status=bot: unknown }}), performance space, cooking and computer facilities, a range of meeting and rehearsal rooms, and a basketball court on the roof. The club is a registered charity (Registration Number 1129419){{cite web| url=https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search?p_p_id=uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet&p_p_lifecycle=2&p_p_state=maximized&p_p_mode=view&p_p_resource_id=%2Faccounts-resource&p_p_cacheability=cacheLevelPage&_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_objectiveId=A11527014&_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_priv_r_p_mvcRenderCommandName=%2Faccounts-and-annual-returns&_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_priv_r_p_organisationNumber=4043459 | title=Annual Review and statements of financial activities: Devas 2020/21 | publisher=Charity Commission | location=UK | date=2021 | accessdate=29 July 2022 }} with the stated purpose of "providing a youth centre for the purpose of helping and educating young persons under the age of 25 years through their physical, mental and spiritual capacities that they may grow to full maturity as individuals and members of society and that their conditions of life may be improved."

The Devas Club has maintained close links with University College, as well as with the Devas family, over the years. It has also developed a close relationship over many years with Wandsworth Council, who provide full-time youth staff to support the club's activities.

Development projects

The building is now rather dated, and no longer fully appropriate for a modern youth club. It has been the subject of a bid to turn it into a modern centre for sports and the creative arts for disadvantaged youth, as well as providing enhanced facilities for local community use. The bid was supported by Wandsworth Borough Council by means of a £0.5m capital grant as well as support for design fees.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} It will include extensively modernising and extending the facilities, as well as upgrading the building provide a more open, flexible and welcoming layout. The exterior walls will be insulated to make the building more sustainable, and a new terrace will be introduced on the rooftop. A large and easily adaptable performance space will be created on the first floor by altering floor levels in the gym.

The club received UK Government Culture Recovery Fund in 2020 for support during the COVID pandemic.{{cite news| url=https://www.wandsworthguardian.co.uk/news/18874820.devas-club-gets-government-financial-boost/ | title=Devas Club gets government financial boost | newspaper=Wandsworth Times | location=UK | first=Frankie | last=Adkins | date=16 November 2020 }} It has also aimed to reduce its energy use.{{cite news| url=https://www.swlondoner.co.uk/news/21122020-battersea-youth-club-looking-to-raise-funds-to-reduce-energy-use | title=Battersea youth club looking to raise funds to reduce energy use | work=SWLondoner | location=UK | date=21 December 2020 | first=Matt | last=Hancock-Bruce }}