Devas Club

The Devas Club for Young People is a youth club in Battersea, south London, England, which provides sporting, educational and creative opportunities for disadvantaged youth.

History

The club 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., Wandsworth, , 19 October 2009. The club was originally called University College House and was in a room above a coffee shop in Stewarts Road.Robin Darwall-Smith, A History of University College, Oxford University Press, 2008, page 410. ISBN 978-0-19-928429-0. Following Jocelyn'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.Oxford youth club celebrates 125 years, , Lambeth Borough Council, London, page 15, 1 November 2009.

This led to a move to larger premises in Thessally Road in Nine Elms in 1907. The comprehensive redevelopment of the Nine Elms area to build New Covent Garden Market prompted another move, to a purpose-built building on Stormont Road near Lavender Hill in 1969, in a notably Brutalist architectural style.

The club was constituted first under a scheme set up by the Charities Commissioners in 1901, when University College Oxford and then......
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