KEYS to a £3.5m Sydenham youth centre have been handed over ahead of its summer opening.

Situated in Wells Park Road, the TNG centre includes a state-of-the-art recording studio, complete with sound booth and mixing deck, and a training kitchen which will house a new social enterprise where young people can learn culinary skills.

Funded by the government's myplace scheme, the centre will be open seven days a week from 9am to 10pm.

And, along with youth facilities, it will also offer community activities including mother and baby workshops alongside classes for older people.

Lewisham Council aksed thirty youngsters over a four-year period about what they wanted the centre - which opens on June 10 - to offer.

One of them, 15-year-old Rashan McDonald from Wells Park Road, said: "Most of us involved in the project have been here from the beginning. We’ve literally seen our ideas - from the indoor climbing wall to the football pitch - come to life."