For us, Tower Hill Boxing Club stands as testament to what can be achieved when a community, a charity and architects come together with a shared vision for a better future.This week the Kirkby-based club hosted a boxing event featuring young fighters from clubs across the area, competing in front of a packed house. For those of us who worked on the transformation of the hub, it’s rewarding to see the space we helped create have a genuine social impact and community purpose.

From community centre to community hub

Tower Hill Boxing Club is a hugely respected local charity, founded in 1972, set up by people who recognised that local young people needed somewhere to go and something to do. It has always been rooted in its community, creating positive role models and channeling the energies of young people into positive structured activity

For decades it operated out of the former Tower Hill Community Centre on Heathfield Drive, a building with heart, but limited facilities. More than anything, the club wanted and needed a facility that matched their ambition, and that would enable them to take their work to a new level.

In 2023, the club took ownership of the building through Knowsley Council’s Community Asset Transfer Scheme. Then, in 2024, the council and One Knowsley secured £1.6m from the Government’s Youth Investment Fund to deliver a major transformation and we were asked to design a space that could grow with the club’s ambitions.

What we delivered

The year-long improvement programme delivered a complete rethink of the venue. The facilities now include a state-of-the-art gym, flexible meeting and training rooms, a wellbeing hub with sauna and cold-water therapy, a fully equipped catering kitchen, large offices, and secure off-road parking.

Our role extended beyond designing the building, encompassing structural engineering, mechanical and electrical systems and landscape architecture.

But the brief was never just about the building. It was about enabling the club to do more of what it already did well, supporting young people, reducing anti-social behaviour, improving mental and physical health, and giving the community a place that felt like theirs.

Events like this week’s really show how that vision has been brought to life. 

Lesley Barnabas, Stronger Communities Coordinator, Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council said: “This project has been truly transformative for Tower Hill Boxing Club, and the impact speaks for itself in our ability to host incredible evenings like this. It has elevated what we can offer our community and strengthened the heart of our club. None of this would have been possible without the dedication, passion, and professionalism of the entire delivery team. Their hard work has created a legacy we’re proud to share.”

Since completion, the hub has hosted boxing shows, community events, and training programmes, proof that good design, rooted in community purpose, creates spaces where real things and real change happens.

To view the full project click here