Our History
It all started in an old cargo shed in Folkestone Harbour in 2006. Originally a partnership between Kent County Council and the Go Folkstone group, the project was established to give young people a safe place to gather.
Over the years a free skate park appeared, and many activities took place inside the project.
In 2013, Folkestone Harbour Board needed to demolish our original buildings which were showing the strain of too many seafront winters. To keep the project and skatepark alive, the Charity raised enough money to buy second hand modular units. Young people and the youth team renovated these together to provide a new base.
In 2016 we were made homeless again due to the redevelopment of the Harbour. With just a few months’ notice to demolish the skate park and remove our buildings, this small Charity faced another huge challenge.
We worked detached until in 2018 we secured, against all odds, a new location. We moved our old modular units to disused Network Rail land and started all over again. The youth team once again , renovated the buildings and in 2019 we had our official re opening.
The Rebuild
In 2016 we were given short notice to leave our original location in the Harbour. Our buildings went into storage and we had to give away most of our belongings.
Our old modular units had suffered water damage during storage in a field down on the Romney marsh, so the youth team renovated the buildings by hand themselves – and often by torch light! We had no power or water onsite!
We took the opportunity to improve the space and local company, Joint Electrical, re-wired for us to make the buildings more energy efficient. Local plumbing company Reina redirected all the plumbing to the new layout.
We added an extra section to provide rental income.
We started again from scratch with just a few second hand tables and chairs!
