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| Skating on the South Bank: my nights getting wrecked in the undercroft | Skating on the South Bank: my nights getting wrecked in the undercroft |
| (about 2 months later) | |
| I didn't really have a clue what I was doing. None of us did. But we'd heard about the latest American craze of skateboarding and fancied having a go. We bought a set of basic trucks (wheels) – basic even by 1976 skateboard standards – screwed them to a plank of wood we had vaguely carved into a V at the front and headed off to the park. Our first descent was a not particularly steep path. If you could get down in one piece without hitting a pothole or skidding on the gravel and then manage to navigate the left-hand bend at the bottom you were a legend. | I didn't really have a clue what I was doing. None of us did. But we'd heard about the latest American craze of skateboarding and fancied having a go. We bought a set of basic trucks (wheels) – basic even by 1976 skateboard standards – screwed them to a plank of wood we had vaguely carved into a V at the front and headed off to the park. Our first descent was a not particularly steep path. If you could get down in one piece without hitting a pothole or skidding on the gravel and then manage to navigate the left-hand bend at the bottom you were a legend. |
| That board soon broke and we screwed the wheels to another plank. That board met a similar fate. Within a few months, though, some half-decent boards with proper give in them and with far more responsive trucks were being sold in London. All we needed now was somewhere to skate. Somewhere smooth; somewhere with ramps, banks and edges; somewhere away from traffic. There were no skateparks. Through word of mouth, we found out that a small group of skaters had colonised the undercroft of the Southbank Centre. | That board soon broke and we screwed the wheels to another plank. That board met a similar fate. Within a few months, though, some half-decent boards with proper give in them and with far more responsive trucks were being sold in London. All we needed now was somewhere to skate. Somewhere smooth; somewhere with ramps, banks and edges; somewhere away from traffic. There were no skateparks. Through word of mouth, we found out that a small group of skaters had colonised the undercroft of the Southbank Centre. |
| Turning up for the first time was scary. The other skaters seemed impossibly cool, performing tricks and turns we'd never seen before, but when the banks were clear we dared to have a go. In time, we all got better. One or two even became quite good. I didn't. I just became competent. Skating wasn't about learning radical mid-air manoeuvres for me so much as having the freedom to get wrecked and ride the urban spaces – spinning and turning on the banks and slaloming between rows of tin cans on the flat – for a couple of hours in the middle of the night while the rest of London was sleeping. | Turning up for the first time was scary. The other skaters seemed impossibly cool, performing tricks and turns we'd never seen before, but when the banks were clear we dared to have a go. In time, we all got better. One or two even became quite good. I didn't. I just became competent. Skating wasn't about learning radical mid-air manoeuvres for me so much as having the freedom to get wrecked and ride the urban spaces – spinning and turning on the banks and slaloming between rows of tin cans on the flat – for a couple of hours in the middle of the night while the rest of London was sleeping. |
| It also turns out that a photo of me (above), taken in 1976 by a friend, Tim Boyce, who went on to be one of the UK's pioneering skateboard photographers, which I'd forgotten about for more than 35 years until I was sent it last week, is one of the few that survive of the early days of skating on the South Bank. It is, in its way, a historical record. Most photographers hadn't heard of skateboarding and the few who had found the light too tricky in the undercroft. | It also turns out that a photo of me (above), taken in 1976 by a friend, Tim Boyce, who went on to be one of the UK's pioneering skateboard photographers, which I'd forgotten about for more than 35 years until I was sent it last week, is one of the few that survive of the early days of skating on the South Bank. It is, in its way, a historical record. Most photographers hadn't heard of skateboarding and the few who had found the light too tricky in the undercroft. |
| I stopped skating a year or two later, but I often make a point of going back to watch the skaters whenever I'm on the South Bank. Not for much longer if the plans to redevelop the undercroft as retail units gets the go ahead. I find it hard to believe that what the South Bank needs most is more shops. I find it harder to believe that the Southbank Centre, one of the epicentres of British cultural life, should be pressing to destroy part of its own countercultural heritage. | I stopped skating a year or two later, but I often make a point of going back to watch the skaters whenever I'm on the South Bank. Not for much longer if the plans to redevelop the undercroft as retail units gets the go ahead. I find it hard to believe that what the South Bank needs most is more shops. I find it harder to believe that the Southbank Centre, one of the epicentres of British cultural life, should be pressing to destroy part of its own countercultural heritage. |
| The undercroft is recognised as the birthplace of British skateboarding. Some parts of the undercroft that I used to skate have long since been redeveloped – the sport's history lies in the way skaters have adapted to their environment – but a shopping arcade, however bijou, that removes the remaining banks and rails will be the kiss of death for a modern landmark in urban youth culture. A landscape that has been the backdrop to the entire history of a culture that has gone from minority to mainstream in less than 40 years is surely something worth preserving. | The undercroft is recognised as the birthplace of British skateboarding. Some parts of the undercroft that I used to skate have long since been redeveloped – the sport's history lies in the way skaters have adapted to their environment – but a shopping arcade, however bijou, that removes the remaining banks and rails will be the kiss of death for a modern landmark in urban youth culture. A landscape that has been the backdrop to the entire history of a culture that has gone from minority to mainstream in less than 40 years is surely something worth preserving. |
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