Heritage value of concrete skateboard parks

Skating was huge back in the 1970s, having a massive impact on youth culture, with hundreds of concrete skateparks being built worldwide. Only a handful of these have survived and their architectural and heritage value is now starting to be recognised. 

The sport/pastime/artform, having waned in popularity, returned in the mid 1980s and has since gone from strength to strength. Skating started the ‘extreme sports’ culture that we see now at X-Games and RedBull events. The debut of skateboarding at the recent Tokyo Olympics underlines its cultural, financial and entertainment value.

This study of late 1970s-early 1980s Concrete and Asphalt Skateboard Parks, by Patrick Quinn (Principal Research Fellow, UCL Institute of Archaeology) and Iain Borden (Prof of Architecture and Urban Culture, The Bartlett School of Architecture), published recently in the Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, takes a detailed look at these unusual subterranean sports arenas and proposes strategies for their protection and conservation. 

Iain is an expert in the heritage of skateboarding and its relationship to the built environment and both he and Patrick are long time skaters.

According to Patrick: 

“Sporting heritage is a key part of the wider cultural landscape of towns and cities. Rom skatepark near London is the largest remaining original multicomponent 1970s skatepark and was given Grade II listing status in 2014. The value of historic stadia, courts, tracks, clubhouses and other structures is being increasingly recognized, and their study is a growing field of research."

Iain and his team at the Bartlett recently hosted a large meeting on the late 1970s skate scene in the UK, which was attended by ‘the Godfather’ of skateboarding Tony Alva, and was supported by Vans shoes. In 2018 they also organised the first international academic conference on skateboarding ‘Pushing Boarders’. 

Several once-extensive parks lie buried beneath the soil, and Patrick and Iain are collaborating with Kris Lockyear (UCL Institute of Archaeology) to explore the state of preservation of these, which were hastily infilled many years ago.

Read more

• Journal of Contemporary Archaeology (original article)
• The Conversation (article)
• Comment: Seven original 1970s skateparks that show why these urban treasures should be protected (UCL News)
• London Rom skatepark given listed status (BBC News)

Paper citation: Quinn, P. S. and Borden, I. 2023. Solid Surf: An Assessment of the Heritage Value of late 1970s-early 1980s Concrete and Asphalt Skateboard Parks, and Strategies for their Protection and Conservation. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 10: 139-169.