Revealing a Hidden Sporting Legacy – Documenting the UK’s rich late 1970s Skatepark Heritage

This British Academy-funded project is undertaking the first detailed assessment of the UK’s rich legacy of original concrete skateboard parks from the late 1970s and earliest 1980s.

A skatepark area with colourful graffiti, a grey and brick building is in the background

Skateboarding made its debut as an Olympic sport at the recent Tokyo 2021 games, yet it has a long and varied history since its invention in the 1960s (Snyder 2015; Borden 2019, p. 6-23). During skateboardings short-lived ‘Second Wave’ in the late 1970s, thousands of purpose-built concrete and asphalt ‘skateparks’ were constructed across the world. However, a temporary collapse in the popularity of skateboarding, combined with insurance difficulties led to the vast majority being closed, and in many cases destroyed. 

A recent global assessment of the remaining original 1970s concrete and asphalt skateparks (Quinn and Borden 2023) has underlined the heritage value of these unique and threatened architectural structures, and set out guidelines for their protection, conservation and repair. Outside the US hotspots of California and Florida where the sport originated, the highest number of second wave parks were constructed in the UK. Surprisingly, a considerable number of these UK facilities still exist, albeit in a state of disrepair, and neglected by all but the most dedicated enthusiasts. 

Two large and well-preserved examples are The Rom and Livingstone Skatepark, have been heritage listed by Historic England and Historic Environment Scotland respectively. Several other large multicomponent skateparks exist many of which face challenges to their continued existence and are in need of assessment. A larger number of smaller bowls, banks and runs were also constructed in the UK by councils, community groups or individuals , or which a surprising number persist.

The on-going project is documenting the existence, extent and state of preservation of the past and present skateparks of the UK using a combination of desk-based research to identify sites, backed up by fieldwork. In addition to printed and digital media such as vintage skateboard magazines, old newspapers, planning applications, aerial photographs, satellite images, old maps and photographic databases, social media, particularly skateboarding forums, will also be a rich source of information that can provide leads as to the whereabouts of certain parks and their history. These desk- and web-based methods will be applied to build up an initial relational database of extant, dormant/buried and extinct sites in the UK.

As the popularity of skateboarding temporarily collapsed in the early 1980s some skateparks were simply filled in and buried. Several examples therefore still exist beneath the soil in an unknown state of preservation. As buried sporting heritage (Inglis 2014), it is important to explore and document these buried remains using archaeological field methods traditionally applied to much older sites. Such an approach has recently been applied to a buried park in Glasgow (see link below). One example of such a ‘dormant’ skatepark in the UK will be chosen for detailed study via aerial photography, high resolution topographic survey and a detailed geophysical survey. A previous attempt to geophysically document a buried 1970s skatepark in Vancouver, Canada (Muckle and Emmett 2016) was inconclusive. However, archaeological geophysics has been successfully applied to other recent sites, including twentieth-century sporting structures.

The main output of the project will be a ‘gazetteer’ documenting the extent and details of the UK’s skatepark Heritage, containing an entry for all large and medium sized parks, and all minor bowls and banks, that are extant, dormant or extinct. It aims to appeal to academics interested in sporting heritage, urban planning professionals, skate heritage enthusiasts, by combining quality photographs with facts and historical accounts. It is hoped that the book serves as a reference for anyone interested in the influence of skateboarding on the built environment and urban heritage.

The project’s activities can be followed via its instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/skateparkheritageuk/). Instructions on how to contribute will be announced soon!

References cited

  • Borden, I, . 2019. Skateboarding and the City: A Complete History. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts.
  • Inglis, S. 2014. Played in London: Charting the Heritage of a City at Play. London: English Heritage
  • Muckle, R. and B. Emmett. 2016. Never Say Last Run: Skateboarders Challenging the Terrain and Becoming Involved in Archaeology. Paper Presented at Theoretical Archaeology Group Annual Meeting Southampton, UK, 19–21 December.
  • 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. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.25151
  • Snyder, C. B. 2015. A Secret History of the Ollie, Volume 1: The 1970s. Cambridge: Black Salt Press. 

Project Members

Links

Contact

Man taking a selfie in front of a train
Patrick Quinn

Project Lead (UCL)

Click to email. patrick.quinn@ucl.ac.uk