A group called The Side Effects of Urethane working in conjunction with the U.K. skate rag Kingpin have designed and mostly built a skateplaza in some unused tunnels in London. These guys are the Dreamland of street parks, I’m declaring it. Make it so. They even followed the D.I.Y. ethic of funding and making it themselves on unused public property. Unlike London’s tradition of squatting however, they managed to get permission first. More London Skateplaza action after the jump. [Source: Sleestak]
The Side Effects of Urethane and the London Skateplaza
I’m not exactly sure what’s going on with this skateplaza. It doens’t appear to have a name other than London Skateplaza. According to this 2006 Xremism
interview with Richard Holland, one of the plaza’s designers, the park was supposed to open in 2006. We’re a quarter of the way through 2007 and I’ve barely heard anything about it. Maybe I shouldn’t have let my industry rag subscriptions lapse. The interview is short but it provides the only background available on the process.
“I have kept the design process very low key, as in my experience, if you open up the process the design can be compromised by trying to incorporate all aspects of skateboarding. Sometimes it’s better to focus on one aspect and make that as best as you can.” Muses Richard.
That sentiment ought to ring true for Portlanders involved in the ever expanding number of cooks in the kitchen trying to horn in on the city’s skatepark design process for PDX’s system of parks.
Not much appears to show up about it on the web. Kingpin’s last mention of it appears to be an April 2006 blurb that is sort of a coming out announcement revealing it’s existence.
I was beginning to believe this was some sort of elaborate British equivalent of an April Fool’s joke until I found some more pictures in the form of a Flikr photo set by Gormski. I even got an email tip off from a Portland ex-pat living in London named Alex (thanks Alex!) saying it was due to pen in the end of April. Maybe there’s some sort of international calendar conspiracy to make me think this park is over a year old when in fact it opens April 2007.
I wish my town had unused public spaces of the type and scale of this one. Sure, Burnside is covered, but only on top. If there’s any amount of wind with the rain, it gets wet. This London spot appears to be open only in a small section. Makes me want to take up street skating, UK style.
9 comments
ryan
it doesnt look that bad. thers defiently beter parks but if was rain out it would be so rad
Kirchart
The park is nice, a little bad on some angles for run up, but other than that it’s a sweet park. Floor is amazing ledges need a bit of wax considering their pretty new, or may just be my trucks i don’t know was there for a short while. Planning on going there again sometime for a proper day skate.
*Note on the person above, who cares about a tre down a 6, i tre’d South Bank 7… 😛 lol but yeah not the site for boasting.
max johnsn
i thik the pictues are kool and i wanna get sponserd by a underground company……..i can tra a 6 stair
Trav
the park looks cool.. I’m looking foward to going.. only one Q? where abouts is the park
georgianskater
hey it seems normall but no rails stairs and things like that… why do they call it skate plaza it should be the joint of the best spots in the world as rob dyrdek said.. like in ohio.. its the heaven.. but i don know about it it is still good though 🙂
Conahan
I think you could be happy with that if it was your local spot. Really cool – and covered!
Kilwag (k.ed)
I wonder if it will still be fun once you get used to the unusual looking surroundings. Who knows? The tunnel might be making it seem cooler than it is.
egbert
Absolutely the raddest thing ever. It is like something conjoured within a dream.
Welsh Pete
I’ll be there in June for a full report