The UK had some funky, janky skateparks in the 70’s. The best skatepark builders were clearly located in the US, but they also had their share of janky parks. Some of the UK parks were in a class of their own when it comes to jank. A post from Ian Ward about Bolton’s Skateboard City came up in my feed from Lost & Found, a group for the old 1970’s concrete skateparks in the UK. It was an indoor skatepark that opened in 1978 and allegedly lasted until 1982 when it abruptly closed and the building was demolished. You’d think there’d be more pictures out there for a skatepark that was open for 5-6 years, but there just isn’t a lot out there.
Here’s the one that started it. That snake run looks incredibly rough. The piles of assorted debris makes it looks like the photo could have been taken while it was still under construction. It has the look of something a kid might design in clay. One of the reviews said it was “terrifyingly bad.”
Here’s a couple of uncredited construction pics that must have come from local newspapers. I haven’t been able to source them.
Concrete Disciples has some newspaper scans posted in their listing for the dead park, unfortunately the sources aren’t listed. Thanks to former S&A coeditor Neil for pointing out that the Stuart Hall appearing at the grand opening was a British television presenter who was later convicted of multiple sexual assaults, some of which took place in the 70’s.
Skateboard City was located on Blackburn Road in Bolton, England, according to the advert, but newspaper accounts of the property say it was Higher Bridge Street. It’s seems impossible that there were 2 indoor skateboards in Bolton that opened in 1978, and there weren’t. Google Maps shows one of those street naming anomalies where Blackburn Road splits off where it meets another road and names change. Blackburn looks like it dumps right into Higher Bridge street, maybe the names have changed over the decades. The building itself was a garage, then a movie theater, then the Wryton Wrestling Stadium before it ended its life as a skatepark.
These pictures are courtesy of David Brown, that’s him navigating that treacherous snake run. I asked David for his recollection of the park:
Bolton Skateboard City was the second skatepark to open in North West UK, after Stalybridge (Manchester), and was the first indoor UK concrete skate park. Proficiency badges were awarded for Slalom, Half Pipe, Snake Run, and a black badge for the terrifying 16 foot deep Bowl.
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Many North West skateboarders from industrial communities improvised safety equipment and made their own decks and ramps during the 1970s from scrap wood. These photos show skaters riding home-made decks with no kick-tails or concave, and wearing canoe helmets, welding gauntlets, and proficiency badges. The skaters were very enthusiastic, so much so that when an adjacent yard caught fire, the skaters were very reluctant to evacuate despite the skatepark filling with smoke, and the skaters had to be ‘herded out’.
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Sadly the surfaces were uneven and the transitions poor, resulting in injuries. This combined with no natural light and poor artificial lighting meant the park was not enjoyable, and skaters moved on to better parks as they opened over the summer of 1978. Even so, 1970s skateboarders have vivid (if not always fond) memories of skating there and remcall the smell of damp concrete and the 1970s music from the Jukebox, including Baker Street by Gerry Rafety and Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush.
These pictures are courtesy of Sheenagh Burdell, the UK’s first female vert skater. Left to right: Sheenagh, unnamed rider from Lan, and the Lan Skateboards team, most of which were locals at Skateboard City. Check out Sheenagh’s profile on Womxn Skate History.
Sheenagh added:
I think Bolton was probably one of the worst constructed skateparks I’ve skated! It was situated in an old cinema on a back street in the centre Bolton. It consisted of a very tall and narrow snake run which was quite difficult to navigate, a nice little wooden half pipe, where I gained my black proficiency badge by fakying to the top. (It was a grading system, you had to prove that you weren’t going to kill yourself by launching into the huge bowl on the first day of owning a skateboard!) And a huge lumpy bowl moulded into the wall in the corner of the building. I found the bowl very difficult to ride as I always seemed to hit an unexpected bump on my descent. Most times I skated there I went home with a bad back!
These two pics from Darren Burdell feature Lee Meadows and Mike Riddell from the Freewheelers Skateshop team. Sheenagh commented that park looks less grim in the colorized pictures, but the reality was that it was still grim.
Lastly, here’s a recollection from Darren Sienkiewicz:
I was a regular there for a while, every Saturday. I knew every bump on the big bowl and there were plenty. I’d left a board in the shop so they could sell it for me and it shut down! No warning , came home from holiday and it was gone!
So that’s it for Bolton’s Skateboard City. Allegedly 6 years in operation and less than a dozen pictures to be found. Was it actually still open in 1982? It seems doubtful. I’d be inclined to believe that it sat empty for a while before being demolished and yet I’ve note seen one mention of people sneaking in to skate it after it had shut down.
Post publication update from David Brown:
I believe it closed in 1981 but people climbed in through a gap in the fence and skated it while it was abandoned.
There’s barely anything about Skateboard City out there at all. Do you have pictures or a recollection of Skateboard City in Bolton? Send ‘em in.
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