Skate 50

Skate boarders, roller skaters and BMXers have been hanging out at the Southbank’s Undercroft since the ‘70s. Back then, the area had no chain restaurants, no street vendors and certainly no tourists. The Southbank was a barren stretch of pavement along the Thames that was home to ‘two pubs and a sweet shop’. Here, London’s first generation of skateboarders, borrowing from a culture that was growing in California, fell in love with the area’s abundance of make-shift concrete ramps (which they called ‘pigeon-shit banks’), open paved surfaces, blocks and railings. The Southbank Centre itself was an impenetrable office building, and the haughty people inside were not happy about the growing community of skaters that was gathering beneath it. Things are looking quite different these days. 

In a new pay-what-you-can (and free for skaters) exhibition celebrating 50 years of the Southbank Skate Space (AKA the Undercroft), the Southbank Centre is telling the story of the iconic graffitied, low-ceilinged skate haven through oral histories, photographs, films and sound art. 

As well as giving a granular timeline of the skate park, accompanied by vibrant photographs (although I would have liked a few more photos), Skate 50 is all about the Southbank’s resilient and pioneering skate community. There are recorded interviews with some of the park’s OG boarders – like Lorraine Rossdale, one of the first British female skaters in the 1970s. She recalls earning her stripes as the first woman, breaking her leg, and shopping for sweatshirts at Slick Willie’s – London’s first skate shop, it was the place to go back in the day and lives on today as a popular skate emporium.

A nostalgia-heavy treat for anyone who worships at the altar of Thrasher, Tony Hawk and Palace.

The main bulk of the exhibit is an immersive audio-visual installation, where several big screens have been placed around a small recreation of a skate park, with miniature ramps for the audience to sit on. A heartwarming short documentary by Keep Rolling Project shares tales of intergenerational family skaters, and unconventional groups like the London Skate Mums. Other films share grainy ‘70s footage of boarders carving along the Southbank, and baggy-trousered ‘90s skaters kick-flipping and olleing their way through the concrete maze. It’s a nostalgia-heavy treat for anyone who worships at the altar of Thrasher, Tony Hawk and Palace.

Admirably, the Southbank Centre doesn’t hide the role it had in trying to force skaters out numerous times over the park’s 50-year history. The skate space has been saved from redevelopment in 1989, 2004, 2008 and most recently 2013. Finally, in 2026 it was granted Grade II-listed status. It’s the first time the park has been totally safe from development, and now will be forever. 

The Undercroft’s skate community is front and centre of this small but uplifting exhibition. It acknowledges how the legendary London landmark wouldn’t still be here today if it wasn’t for the grassroots groups that fought for its future. This is a fitting tribute.