Why Skateboarders Are the Soul of London’s South Bank
Southbank is the heart and soul of the skate scene for London UK skaters. London’ers are also coming to realize that it’s the same skaters that have become the soul of their beloved Southbank. It’s become London’s most iconic street spots and a massive tourist hub. It’s helped birth the UK’s most famous skate crew The Palace Wayward Boys Choir and many others.
It’s become such an attraction that Travel + Leisure has latched onto the story.
The Southbank Centre is also home to an accidental skate park. Winstan Whitter, a British filmmaker and skateboarder, explained that when skateboarding was emerging in the 1960s, its early adopters were drawn to an abandoned car park for the handicapped beneath the Hayward Gallery. For decades since, skateboarders have made use of the undercroft’s banks, ramps, and smooth surfaces.
Recently, plans were announced to change the Festival Wing, and to remove the skate area in the process. But the proposal was met with massive opposition, from artists who performed at the Southbank Centre in “Long Live South Bank” protest shirts to the skateboarders themselves. Eventually, Boris Johnson, then London’s mayor, bowed to pressure and insisted that the Festival Wing transformation leave the skate park untouched.
“You can’t mention the Southbank Centre without mentioning the undercroft and the skateboarding and the young people who use it,” said Whitter. “It’s intrinsically tied and bound to the space. It always will be.”
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