Long Live Southbank
What comes up in your head when you think of London heritage? Architecture? Art? Royalty? Or is it a red bus? It's probably not skateboarding but that's what most definitely part of London heritage is.
It started in 1973 when the first skaters discovered the undercroft of the Royal Festival Hall of the Southbank Centre and started using it as a makeshift skatepark. Over the time it became world famous in the skateboarding community and now it's a place that attracts many to enjoy this unique place on the Southbank including famous skaters, graffiti artists, BMX riders and hundreds if not thousands of tourists every day. This place is blooming as a community.
But it wasn't always so. A couple of years back the Lambeth council has started planning a complete rebuild of the undercroft into a so-called 'Festival Wing' which would see the skatepark turned into more chain shops, fast food restaurants, and cafes. This sparked a petition to save the skatepark that has gathered around 33 000 signatures. Thanks to that the council signed an agreement with the skateboarders to keep the skatepark undisturbed.
Since then the Long Live Southbank organization worked very hard to refurbish the second part of the skatepark which was closed off for almost 13 years now and recently started a crowdfunding campaign to gather the necessary funds for creating a new learning center for children and young people with the cooperation of Southbank Centre. They have even announced a partnership with Adidas and released a line of shoes and clothing with the Southbank Skatepark theme which was revealed at their photographic exhibition on Hoxton Street on the 23rd of June.
Here are some images of the iconic London landmark I have taken randomly during normal days as well as during the recent Skate_Pal event which was aimed to raise funds to build a skatepark for Palestinian children.
Over 40 years and still going strong.
