Southbank Undercroft

Park Details

• Surface: Concrete
• Admission: Free
• Environment: Outdoor (covered undercroft)
• Allowed: Skateboards, BMX Bikes, Scooters, Inline Skates
• Facilities: Lights, Public Transit Nearby, Cafés Nearby, Restrooms Nearby, Riverside Walk
• Management: Unsupervised (Southbank Centre, with Long Live Southbank)
• Opened: 1973
• Elevation: 1 m (3 ft)
• Footprint: 4,306 sq ft (as stated by the park)

Obstacles

• Ledge
• Quarter Pipe
• Manny Pad
• Rail
• Kicker
• Euro Gap
• Stairset
• Hubba
• Wallride
• Box

About Southbank Undercroft

Southbank Undercroft is a free, open-access concrete skate spot beneath the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre, on London's South Bank. It's widely recognised as the world's oldest continually used skate spot. It was never designed as a skatepark. The Brutalist complex was completed in 1967, and its architects left this open undercroft unused until skateboarders adopted its sloped concrete, pillars, and flat ground in 1973. By the late 1970s it was home to skateboarders and rollerbladers, growing into the birthplace of British skate culture. Every surface is layered in ever-changing graffiti, and it even appeared in the video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. In 2013 the space was threatened with redevelopment, prompting skaters to form the activist group Long Live Southbank. After about 17 months of campaigning, they won legal protection and recognition as an Asset of Community Value in 2014. Long Live Southbank then partnered with the Southbank Centre to restore it, reopening over 400 square metres of space last skated in 2004. Completed in 2019, the work replaced sections of concrete, reinstated the small banks and wooden ledges, and added new lighting, and it welcomes skateboarders, BMX riders, scooters, and bladers.

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