Retrospective to focus on history of one of Britain’s oldest continuously used skateboarding sites
Woods Bagot has designed an exhibition at the Southbank Centre celebrating 50 years of skateboarding in the building’s undercroft space.
The retrospective exhibition will recount the history of the skateboarding destination, regarded as one of the birthplaces of the sport in the UK, using film, sound and objects.
The undercroft space, a highly visible covered area on the busy main route along the Southbank, was originally left open to the public following the completion of the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1967.
Its concrete ledges, ramps and pillars were first taken over by skateboarders in the 1970s, and the still highly popular space has become established as one of the oldest continuously used skateboarding locations in the UK.
Woods Bagot said it had sought to channel both the undercroft’s monolithic architecture and the “creative spirit of the skateboarding scene” by allowing visitors to choose their own route through the exhibition.
“Like the undercroft skate space itself, the exhibition embraces an improvisational spirit,” said James Khamsi, Principal at Woods Bagot. “The undercroft was never designed for skateboarding but has been transformed by generations of skaters into an iconic cultural site.”
Associate at the firm Dina Khaki said the design had been inspired by how exhibition spaces can “choreograph, rather than control, visitors’ movement.
Southbank Centre artistic director Mark Ball added: “The Undercroft Skate Space is a vital part of our cultural make-up, a space that has been a home for contemporary culture, skateboarding, and creativity for half a century. And who better to tell these stories than the communities that have directly used it and continue to do so.”
The exhibition, called Skate 50, will feature custom furniture which will serve as seating for screens and has been designed to be reused as ramps by undercroft skaters once the exhibition closes. It will open on Thuirsday 30 April and run until 21 June.
It is part of a wider programme of events celebrating 75 years of the Southbank Centre, which first opened with the completion of Royal Festival Hall in 1951 as part of the post-war Festival of Britain.
No comments yet