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achievements, but feedback from parents
indicates that the Club is making a real
difference to its members’ school results,
whether it be in English, Maths or even
Spanish.
Both the sports activities and the
academic classes receive very real
support from Win Coll. For many years,
the Club has sent football teams down
to Winchester for annual matches.
More recently, the ad hoc help of current
Wykehamists at the Club has been
enhanced by the weekly attendance of
young dons helping with the academic
classes. The end of Cloister Time
usually sees a small ‘summer school’
visit to Winchester by a Club party and
successive generations of Wykehamists
have given the Club generous help,
from hands-on management to financial
support.
To set against that catalogue of
continuity, much else has changed,
and is continuing to change. The most
obvious change is the Club’s home: the
increasingly dilapidated single-storey
1920s building with its outdoor yard
has been replaced by new state-of-the-
art premises on the ground floor and
basement of the imposing block of flats
which now stands on the old Wiltshire
T he T rusty S ervant
Row site, with a huge indoor sports hall.
The realization of that redevelopment
has resulted in the Club gaining a second
assured income source: the Club itself,
as distinct from the Trust, holds an
investment portfolio of roughly £1.3m.
Other changes are less rosy, or
at least more uncertain. There are
big changes happening in the local
neighbourhood, leading to a changing
population and different needs of the
local community. Hoxton is no longer
an area of extreme deprivation with
substandard housing and a newly
settled immigrant population. As
relative prosperity has come to the
neighbourhood, social issues affecting
young people abound. In particular, the
local area has seen a dramatic rise in
crime against property and against young
people and an increasing appearance of
gangs.
The new premises are proving more
of a handful than was anticipated. The
building is new but also very complex,
and when things go wrong, they are
difficult and expensive to correct. The
flood in the sports hall last year caused
immense damage: a new floor had to
be laid at great cost (fortunately, to the
insurers) and at great disruption to the
13
Club’s activities, as the sports hall was
out of action for some five months. The
boys’ changing room is still out of use
due to another water ingress which has
yet to dry out.
Then there is the long-term
financial health of the Club. Although
the Club is supported by those two
investment portfolios, income is not
matching expenditure to Mr Micawber’s
satisfaction, and costs are slowly eating
into the Club’s reserves. As most of the
costs are incurred either on the staff
bill or the maintenance of the building,
there are no easy savings without radical
overhaul of what the Club does. On the
income side, for some years now the Club
has not received any assured public-
sector grant, and private-sector grants
and individual donations have become
the mainstay of its fundraising.
So, the Win Coll connection remains
vital to the long-term well-being of
the Club. Besides the generous help of
successive Headmasters, any help from
individual OWs will continue to be very
welcome and appreciated.
Under 10s training