See below👇
In the summer of 2026 the Southbank Centre celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Festival of Britain which brought most of the buildings associated with the Southbank Centre into being. Alongside this the Southbank Centre also wanted to celebrate the 50th year of undercroft or “skate space” as they now want to call it.
After much consideration I decided I wouldn’t have anything to do with the exhibition itself. Not because the “skate space” meant nothing to me but because it seemed to me this was the same Southbank Centre that had spent most of the previous 50 years trying in various ways to shut the space down and was now wanting to turn around and celebrate their relationship to skateboarding.
So here, in my small exhibition space on the World Wide Web is my story, my timeline of Southbank history and no, I will not be referring to it as anything other than that from now on.
In the mid to late 1980s when I first encountered the Southbank, not only were the lights switched off in the undercroft at night but staff from the centre would regularly throw stones across the floor to stop the skateboarding. Lo-fi but pretty effective.
When the skateboard ‘problem’ persisted in the undercroft in the early 1990s the Southbank Centre erected barriers at the bottom of the small banks (see picture) and at the bottom of the bank to wall. The ‘Driveway’ had pebbles concreted onto it and the paving slabs at the back of the undercroft had lines jackhammered into them. (See another picture)
Some skateboarders with enough ability managed to show their creativity by seeing some of the new additions as skateable objects. But how would any of this be in any way considered inclusive today?
Continued in comments 👇
@andrewbrophy bump to bar Backside 180 Ollie in London from Sidewalk Magazine May 2004
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Ben Raemers showed us how a mini ramp needs to be skated. This was during the African Vacation tour back in 2010. Joined by Ryan Decenzon, Chris Haslam and Andrew Brophy.
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Ryan Decenzo showed us how to skate from the top step at the Iziko Museum during the African Vacation tour in 2010. He was joined by Andrew Brophy, Chris Haslam and Ben Raemers
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