Skaters in London are trying to restore the Southbank Centre, a popular skating site

2017-08-08T13:37:00-04:00

The point is, skaters made that area safe; in the old days it was cardboard city. That is what skating does: it fills the cracks in society left by capitalist development … that is where skating exists. It’s like a fungus, it’s like moss, it just grows in the corners where no one else wants to be.

Back in 2004, two-thirds of a popular skateboarding site at the Southbank Centre in London was destroyed. In 2014, the final third of the site was on its way to closure when the property management changed hands. Seeing the turnover as an opportunity, a campaign—Long Live Southbank—began that proposed the reconstruction of the original site in its entirety. The effort has largely been successful; the Southbank Centre has agreed and the plans have been approved by the city.

It may not be so surprising that the Centre might re-welcome skaters as the Guardian explains, "the idea that skateboarders are the “shock troops of gentrification” has been well documented." Skateboarders are often willing to congregate in areas that others do not want to and in this way, can act as a neighborhood watch that in time, allows others to feel safe in the space as well. Now, the only thing standing in the campaign's way is raising the funds necessary—around £790,000—for restoration.

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Sculpting a new South Bank

2013-11-26T13:04:00-05:00

Here is a wonderful central London site that has hosted the arts since 1951. If it is not working, let's make sure we either restore the original buildings with dignity, to make them as good as they can possibly be, or take the plunge and replace them with a 21st-century set of buildings, better suited to the art forms and audiences of today

Examining plans for the proposed redevelopment of the Southbank Centre, sculptor Antony Gormley concludes that bulldozing the site would be better than the planned revamp.

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Skaters in London are trying to restore the Southbank Centre, a popular skating site

Sculpting a new South Bank