FOR the last 50 years relationships lasting a lifetime have been built at the Henry Brown Youth Club.

The centre on Cunningham Crescent, West Howe, was opened at 3pm on Wednesday, April 22, 1964, and named after the mayor who had initiated the project.

Henry Brown did not survive to see his vision come to life and go on to flourish as a community hub that attracted hundreds of visitors each week.

Pat Neilson claims she was the first youngster through the doors on that night five decades ago.

“It was a place where everybody could go to meet up after tea,” she says.

“Before it opened you would have to go over to Oakwood or East Howe in the evening and your parents would worry if you went too far.

“I used to play table tennis, but it was more than just a place to see your friends and have fun.

“The Rev Hallum would come in too and if anybody ever had any troubles they could speak to him here.”

That community spirit was embodied by the families who congregated there every night and a number of husband and wives met for the first time within its walls.

Sue Butcher was one of six sisters in West Howe who would regularly attend the centre.

In misty-eyed tones she describes the positive impact it had on not just her family, but all of the people around her.

“It brought the community and families together,” she recalls.

“It was always full in those days and had a great atmosphere.

“We did everything – I remember there was hairdressing, table-tennis and even trampolining. We would put on plays as well and had a football team.”

One of the fondest memories of all who attended the club in the ’60s appears to be the regular performances by rock‘n’roll group The Boss Men.

Sue says their front man, Cliff Beckett, reminded her of Mick Jagger and many at the club would travel with the band to gigs across Dorset.

One of Sue’s sisters, Debbie Evans, also has happy memories of the club and smiles as she recounts meeting her future husband there 40 years ago.

“I remember seeing him for the first time in the corner of the room. He was a skinhead.

“When I took him home my father ordered me never to bring back ‘that hedgehog’ again.

“So I didn’t bring him back until his hair had grown and my father didn’t recognise him.

“We got married after knowing each other for six months and have been together ever since.”

There have been huge cultural shifts and changes since the club’s opening in the ’60s Few have seen that change in the area’s young people more than the club’s chairman, former mayor Ted Taylor, who started as an assistant youth worker at Henry Brown in 1966.

“There was a buzz of young people wanting to go and do things together,” he says “It really helped them having a place like this.

“Yes it was a place for people to meet, but it also provided the youngsters with a kind of informal education.”

Ted also recounts one of his favourite moments – England’s 1966 world cup triumph.

“Everybody just jumped up,” he adds. “It was wonderful.”

The atmosphere on that day was special, but it was too on so many other occasions and hosted the formative moments of many in the area.

The building, which cost £57,500 when it was first constructed, came just a handful of years after the West Howe estate was built on previously unused heathland – Bournemouth’s first large scale local authority housing estate.

Still in council hands today, offering a wide range of activities and informal learning for children, it is hoped the centre’s positive impact will continue for yet another generation.

Jane Parsons, from Bournemouth council’s youth services department, says everyone she meets at the centre seems to have had a family member who was a member in the past.

She adds: “It really is the hub of the community.”