Jul 1, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min · 9 segments
This episode is on the 1959 documentary *We Are the Lambeth Boys.* To hear the B-side, subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thelackpodcast
Nina PowerHostBenjamin StudebakerHostIt is a documentary film, and it follows the young men and women who attended Alfred House Youth Club in Kennington, South London.
The youth club functions as a third space for its members, most of whom are either nearing the end of secondary school or in the early stages of careers in the trades.
The young people go to the youth club to play sports, discuss social issues, and attend dances.
They visit a nearby chippy, and they travel for sports matches against rival clubs and schools in other parts of London.
The film presents all of this as something of a slice of life with no heavy-handed message, apart from perhaps the idea that the youth club is a good thing and that there should be more organizations like it.
The year after the film came out, a government committee chaired by the Countess of Albemarle released a report articulating a model for youth clubs.
They were to be based on three principles: association, training, and challenge.
It claimed that the youth service should seek, quote, "To provide places for association in which young people may maintain and develop, in the face of a disparate society, their sense of fellowship, of mutual respect, and tolerance.
Such centers may also help to counteract the increasing educational and professional stratification of society.
Those who are intellectually or financially well endowed have as much to gain as others from the opportunity for mixed fellowship, as much to learn from as to give to others.
It is very difficult to run a club whose members have mixed educational backgrounds, but it is exceptionally well worth trying." End quote.
This associative activity was intended to train youths in the specific skills relevant for adult life.
These included physical recreation, job skills, home economics, and participation in public affairs.
It was also meant to be challenging and to be challenging in a manner that differed from the way in which academic pursuits are challenging.
The report says that, quote, "Many adolescents have a strong need to find something they can do, individually or in a chosen group, which they feel to be deeply worthwhile beyond pleasure or personal reward, and that it is immensely important that young people of different kinds and levels of ability should have opportunities to display and to respect forms of preeminence in fields other than the academic." End quote.
In the 10 years following the publication of the report, the number of full-time workers in the youth service was doubled.
It enlarged the sector considerably at the cost of bureaucratizing it and making it dependent on public money.
Between 2010 and 2021, funding for youth services was cut by 60% in real terms.
One study classifies 48% of local authorities in the UK as black holes in which there is little or no service provision, but high rates of deprivation and antisocial behavior.
In recent years, there have been many communitarian laments about the demise of third spaces, places to socialize apart from home and work.
It is a documentary film, and it follows the young men and women who attended Alfred House Youth Club in Kennington, South London.
The youth club functions as a third space for its members, most of whom are either nearing the end of secondary school or in the early stages of careers in the trades.
The young people go to the youth club to play sports, discuss social issues, and attend dances.
They visit a nearby chippy, and they travel for sports matches against rival clubs and schools in other parts of London.
The film presents all of this as something of a slice of life with no heavy-handed message, apart from perhaps the idea that the youth club is a good thing and that there should be more organizations like it.
The year after the film came out, a government committee chaired by the Countess of Albemarle released a report articulating a model for youth clubs.
They were to be based on three principles: association, training, and challenge.
It claimed that the youth service should seek, quote, "To provide places for association in which young people may maintain and develop, in the face of a disparate society, their sense of fellowship, of mutual respect, and tolerance.
Such centers may also help to counteract the increasing educational and professional stratification of society.
Those who are intellectually or financially well endowed have as much to gain as others from the opportunity for mixed fellowship, as much to learn from as to give to others.
It is very difficult to run a club whose members have mixed educational backgrounds, but it is exceptionally well worth trying." End quote.
This associative activity was intended to train youths in the specific skills relevant for adult life.
These included physical recreation, job skills, home economics, and participation in public affairs.
It was also meant to be challenging and to be challenging in a manner that differed from the way in which academic pursuits are challenging.
The report says that, quote, "Many adolescents have a strong need to find something they can do, individually or in a chosen group, which they feel to be deeply worthwhile beyond pleasure or personal reward, and that it is immensely important that young people of different kinds and levels of ability should have opportunities to display and to respect forms of preeminence in fields other than the academic." End quote.
In the 10 years following the publication of the report, the number of full-time workers in the youth service was doubled.
It enlarged the sector considerably at the cost of bureaucratizing it and making it dependent on public money.
Between 2010 and 2021, funding for youth services was cut by 60% in real terms.
One study classifies 48% of local authorities in the UK as black holes in which there is little or no service provision, but high rates of deprivation and antisocial behavior.
In recent years, there have been many communitarian laments about the demise of third spaces, places to socialize apart from home and work.
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