Knowle West boxing gym set to close due to redevelopment

With its massive pair of red boxing gloves spray painted onto the front door of the club, and posters advertising recent high-profile fights for Knowle West-born professional boxer Duane Winters, Skemer’s Boxing Gym in Knowle West is a community beacon. Tucked away down residential Tavistock Road and backing onto the playing fields of The Park, the former youth club has been transformed by Skemer Winters since he took it on voluntarily in 2012.

Following 32 years at Empire Amateur Boxing club, including as head coach, Skemer got a call asking if he wanted to run a boxing gym in Knowle West. Having been born in the area and moved back to have a family, he was a great choice for setting a club up that would offer high-quality coaching and cater to the true needs of the community.

Skemer has invested all the proceeds he makes back into the gym

“I talk to the kids the way I would want to be talked to,” Skemer says, sitting on the counter of the hatch between the little kitchen and the main room with its full-size ring, punching bags hanging from the ceiling and sparring gloves hung in neat rows along one wall. “I’m not their school teacher or their parent. I’m their mate. We can have a laugh and a joke. They say ‘yes, sir’ and I tell them not to. Call me Skemer. Call me ‘dickhead’ if you want. I’m putting a bit of discipline into them without forcing it on them.”

Over the years, many have come through the doors and helped to transform both the club and the area. Skemer has put in showers and changing rooms, opened the gym up in the summer to give local kids a safe place to run around and take out their frustrations, and let countless people train for free when they didn’t have the money. “There’s no drugs on this bit of the street because I tell them to piss off,” Skemer says with trademark bluntness. “This building was empty for 15 years and it was used as a drug den. Now I just ring up the lads if there’s any trouble.”

On Sundays, Skemer runs an hour-long training session specifically for local kids who are being bullied. “They’re being bullied by the next-door neighbour, their parents, their brothers and sisters or on social media, but here it’s one happy family. Lots of people have been taking us up on the offer,” Skemer says. He’s also got the freedom to open the gym whenever he needs to: “Lads I’ve trained have called me up when they’ve lost their mum or dad, crying, saying can I open the gym so they can hit a bag. It gets the frustration out. Then they’re too tired to cause havoc and it stops them doing silly things. I’d rather have them in here and not running about on the streets.”

The gym is well-known and used by the community of Knowle West

Skemer himself got into boxing as an escape from a difficult upbringing in a children’s home in St Paul’s. “I started boxing to get used to the beatings,” he says. “It taught me how to block out pain, and carry on, and not quit. When I had kids I swore they wouldn’t have that upbringing. No kid should go through that.”

This has been his mission statement for the past six years, putting all of his time into running the club for the benefit of the community. “We’ve never had a grant. We’ve done it all off our own back. All the money I earned went back into it. I’m on £100 a week for one-to-one coaching if I’m lucky – I had to ring up the social and go back on it.”

However, things will not continue as they have done for much longer. The owners of the building and the land it stands on, The Park, have regeneration plans for the site and Skemer will have to leave his gym by December 31 when the area is developed for affordable housing. “It’s part of a long-term plan for our sustainability as a large community centre,” says Sam Carrier, a spokesperson for The Park.

“Skemer was made aware of the plans over 12 months ago and we spent a long time talking about accommodating him on the main site, but he wants sole use of the building. We can’t do that because we have so many people using the site, along with staffing and security matters to consider. We’re working with local councillors to find him alternative premises, and have supported him as much as we can. It is our hope that he is able to find alternative premises.”

Skemer’s head drops when he talks about the future. “I’m doing my best to find somewhere else to go but I don’t want to move,” he says. “It’s got to be in Knowle West. I just need a little plot of land to build on, somewhere that isn’t used.

“The council should be finding me somewhere, for everything I do for this community. If I was in St Paul’s they’d have built me something, but Knowle West has run down so much, they think ‘fuck it, let it carry on being a shithole’. Around here I’m like a god because I run stuff for the kids to do. Mad, init.”

If you could help Skemer Winters to find new premises for his boxing gym in Knowle West, please email jess@bristol247.com