A children’s football club is hoping for a big win as it looks to secure a disused pump house in Clissold Park as a storage unit.

Hackney Gazette: The in demand pump house. Picture: Polly Hancock.The in demand pump house. Picture: Polly Hancock. (Image: Archant)

Clissold Rangers FC wants to use the listed building to keep the heavy training gear, so the volunteer coaches don’t have to carry the load to and from sessions anymore.

The pump house, last used as a cafe in 2015, is being put out to tender by Hackney Council.

The club has teams from under eight to under 16 and under 11s coach Tom Goodwin said the kids would like nothing more than to score in a real goal.

“We’re all volunteers and we have to bump the gear on bikes and in cars to the park,” he said. “There’s lots of training we simply can’t do because we can’t keep the kit nearby.

“I know they’d love to score in a real goal too but we just can’t manage to cart bigger kit such as goal posts.”

Other parties will be competing with the Rangers to use the building, so the club is hoping its community credentials will see it through.

Chairman Nick Francini said: “Our coaches already volunteer so much of their time. To ask them to hump piles of kit back and forth to their houses and into sheds doesn’t encourage more people to volunteer, and that really forms the backbone of this club.

“If we win the tender we’d be more than happy to share the space with other clubs, such as our friends at Hackney Bulls rugby.”

A town hall spokesman said there had been lots of interest in the pump house. “As with any other opportunity we need to have a fair and transparent way of deciding what to use it for,” he added. “We plan to advertise the opportunity for people to apply to use it in the near future. We will be looking for uses that ideally benefit wider park users whilst also generating income to help maintain the park.”

Clissold Rangers.Picture: Polly hanock