Well thats just buggered my plans to come down to London. I am surprised with the amount of skaters that use that place some kind of petitition hasn't been put together. I mean South Bank is legendary. Hasn't it even appeared in Tony Hawk's games?

Unfortunately i have never been to South Bank, but i recognise how large this place is to British skatings past. I can't belive they can do this, and get away with it! There should be a petition, at the very least. And i'm sure a lot of people would make their way to the Southbank, (or anywhere else for that matter) to protest about it.

im pyssed cos i only bin there recently my first time and now it aint there no more......... i absolutly h8 the government thet suck fuking balls stupid sh*ts ill kill them all and burn down parliment and downing street AND buckingham

<font color='#32CD32'>Sanitised...

Homogonised...

Controlled...

Wouldn't want to prevent full profit maximisation from
those lovely tourists now would we?
font>

I went to southbank today, and I cannot believe how much they have taken away! Massive boards of chipboard or whatever the hell it is, from floor to ceiling, blocking all the small banks and the little stairs around the back! The flat is so narrow in some parts and mostly covered in gravel. A minute wouldn't go by without the sound of wheels screeching on a stone and someone being flung off their deck. It is such a sad sight to see this as I have been going there for a few years and now it is being ruined by those pesky council members who like to piss us off far too often by pulling stunts like these.

Security has tightened up around shell centre and the banks under the train bridge too - only at the banks for two minutes and had to leg it before the guards got there.  As for shell, there were about 6 guards patrolling, so no skate there either.

However, it seems security and are lacking in the st pauls department - so many skaters there and not a single cop around!

As for the terrorism thing, I read an article in Sidewalk a few months back about how skateboards are not allowed to be taken on aeroplanes as handluggage as they could apparentely be used to hijack them! Hmmmm.....

Did you do that? Full credit to you then.

I did say i found it. No need to wag the finger at me.  

The security guards f##k off at 6-30-7pm, so after that theres always skaters there. Shell Centre is cool!!

The advice from many is to get down there as soon as possible if you want to get a chance to skate it for the first/last time, it won't be there much longer...

ive heard of Lucien Clarke somewere, but dont know were lol,
what companys is he hooked up with?

uumm i have no idea mate

Just to inform everyone that it now looks as though the south bank in london is finally about to be closed.

The small banks have been taken away and made into a storage area, and the big banks and stair set are said to be next. There will probably still be a flat ground area there still, but it will never be the same.

There is still a chance this is some temporary thing, but by the looks of it, it's not.

have to say im pretty upset, the place was legendary and had an amazing legacy, and that has been torn to pieces in a matter of months by people who probably are too blinkered to realise it's historical worth.

If anyone has any information as to if this is a permanent thing or just temporary, please tell me

Thanks

Daniel
(

Hehe, yea, i was actually thinking of e-mailing ken livingstone about it to see if he realises what an amazing piece of heratige he's allowed to dissapear, but i want to get my facts correct first, as soon as i know this is for real, i will!

That is a serious blow to British skating history....
Millions of skate-rats will never visit   :cry:

There is rumour that the guys at CIDE skate shop are being consulted about some sort of park next to the old spot which would be made to look like a street spot (even having the same old banks in there) though i don;t know if this is true yet

man that sucks this thursday i was goin to go up to london and do the southbank set

is shell centre still alrite? or hav the bastards recked that 2

Yea, shell center's still ok, plus i think you can still skate the set, though i don't know how long that will last

I skated the Bog Bowl on Fri, and its still good, but there's quite a few stones down there. People still stand to watch, although no top guys go down there any more, just the likes of me, butu was fun cos there were only like 8 people there!

palace

thats a right shame i mean if its been chose for an American game it must be special now what i mean

I doubt the fact that skaters are about is gonna deter tourists

skaters of london beware!! now that the government can slap you away without charge nder new "terrorism" laws its only a matter of time before people from the london skate scene begin to go missing. i always thought the inside of parliament looked nice for freestyle, those floors are sooo smooth they look just right for casper slides (only ever done them before on ice) and i bet theres some nice stair sets around there somewhere

R.I.P. Southbank...

Although i was never fortunate enough to travel to london and skate this legendary spot, it will allways be part of the uks ever growing skate scene.

I remember the huge magazine coverage it had in the 80's/90's with many up and coming uk street skaters getting cover shots doing flips ect down those famous stairs. Perhaps if some uk pros had shown a vested interest before this tradgedy happened, it could have been saved, even if having to raise money to buy it from the council was an only option.

The likes of Alex moul,Tom penny and Curtis mcann (im unsure if mcann still skates) are who they are today because they were noticed as amateurs at southbank. They even filmed parts of deathbox's "spirit of the blitz" there.

It is a true shame that part of the uks skate scene history has been removed so the pen pushing money grabbers can make a quick buck.

Glad you liked my article from Eryc.:nono:

A couple of weeks left before it all goes, I was told by a local on Friday.

Mayor Ken has not replied to my letter either, the sour-faced c##t  .

RIPeices southbank, you will be missed.

I think we've been here before but if ever there was a more apt time to start a revolution, i've yet to see it. I've got Saddams weapons. He gave them to me for safe keeping. They're in my shed.

Viva La Revolucíon!

Whens it gonna happen, I appreciate that skating has alot of history there but at least you can practice some things on flat ground, I think it will be worse on Parkour, we need somthing to practice on.

Their gonna leave the shell centre right?

As far as I know, shell centre isn't part of the "regeneration" project. However, they have stepped up security there and all around that area, including the car park beside the bridge with the little ledges.

I think night skating might be the answer if you want a proper skate.

the guards at the shell centre don't tend to car about us too much, guess were a little more subtle without equipment.

only been once,but even i could do a decent ollie there,and thats saying something lol

goin at weekend cuz u said that

DANG i never got to skate there, shame its going  :cry:

:cry: damn i think a protest should take place

Here is an article i found.

Westminster Council have finally decided that urban culture and extreme sports have no place in the throbbing metropolis, and have bought in the bulldozers. There is now no banks, no mellow transition, no lips no steps, and no flatland. All thats left is an undercover bit of flat, which goes out to the rivers edge and is very busy with padestrians. Its sad, real sad.

The Council have been trying since the late 80s to destroy skaters dry runs. First the rails were removed. Then they drilled holes and cuts in the concrete (S'Bank is soooo smooth) so any line you took towards a bank or steps would end in a vibratingly annoying bail. Aparently, a skater got his dad, who worked for the council, to take a mini-mixer down there one night and filled in the holes. Which worked! Much respect! I think the Council kinda just said "Ah, f##k it, leave it" and that they did. For a good 8yrs Southbank was dry and full of skaters, a real community. Locals, visitors, people there just to watch. The perfect place to go when the weather decides to play a nasty trick on you.

This is probably the worst thing to hit London's skating community. Im so gutted, going to have to get down there in the next few days for a farewell skate. I had my first skate there when I was about 4yrs old with my cousin on his old school board back in the 80's.

Ah well, like Daniel said, lets go rip the rest of London to pieces.

Actually, funny you should mention the tourists, they used to love it there, you'd get crowds of em' hanging round to watch all the time!

It's definetely the cash thing though, thing about south bank is that no-one owned it, if the council had come along and made it "westminster council presents: the southbank" it'd be around for ever, but since there's no pen pusher around to claim that they got it organised and no local newspaper there for them to have the mayors picture taken with a bunch of skateboarders for some crappy PR stunt, no one cares.

Now, if you look at any of those crappy council built skate parks (im sorry, im very thankfull and all that, but most of them do suck) they make a big deal out of it being built, it gets in the local paper, at the opening of our park near us, they got some kid up on stage and got them to read out a piece of paper they'd written themselves saying "thankyou greenwich council for this skate park"

now where is all this care for such a rich piece of our history? Unfortunately the south bank created it's own scene, so as far as the money people are concerned it never happened!

(Sorry, im ranting again)

Rant away Yensid

I have never been to South Bank but i share your sentiments entirely. I could write an epic on some of the council built parks near me, they always say they have consulted skaters but in fact all they do is show a few 7 year olds the plans and think that qualifys. Someone out there is making a lot of money on local councils by making impractical skateparks.

As for South Bank, i think its really sad that 20 years of history is being disguarded because its just skateboarders. Skateboarding has a better profile than it did but people still have a blinkered eye view of what skateboarding is.
What i don't understand is why the skate community hasn't banded together with the help of magazines and at least tried to fight to save South Bank. Give London a few months without South Bank and see how the council likes their streets ground up, you never know they might try and find somewhere to build a decent outdoor park, something on the lines of Love Park.

They're renovating the whole site, so the banks are going.

http://www.rfh.org.uk/main/flash/transform...resentation.swf

Damn shame. I'm 29, but I used to skate there back in the day and I still ride there on my bike now and then.

It'll no doubt have a swanky bar (full of tossers) and a couple of shops (full of tossers) and big glass bits (that cost lots) - all of it about as much use to skaters as a balsa deck.

Thanks!!Didnt mean to offend with my fingery wag!!:beer:

damn, never got to skate south banks  :cry:

Wow, never got to skate shell centre, Anyone ever see Lucien Clarke there? Top 15 y/o skater, Got the chance to skate with him at playstation once

no! goodbye southbank.kill the capatilist basterds that did this

Terrorism laws?where the hell has the world gone.....

They are still there you dumbasses, this topic is old and only the small banks have gone, they've been replaced with ledges and stuff, shell centre is still there and so are the main banks and the seven, stop bumping old topics!

if it hasnt bin said yet south bank is not gone they sectioned off part of it for construction and made the rest an official skatespot they got the big banks with the seven set and that area.....and the got the whole area up to where the bowls were......they have added about 5 ledges and one doubles as a manny pad......though you gotta be able to ollie goodto get up on it.......everything is concrete so it slides well........ and pros go there almost everyday, and round the corner is the shell centre which has some phat sets (2 6's and a three that is also a manny pad on one part) so the place still rocks man my advice is to go there even if you only skatin flat cos of the atmosphere lol......and for the guys out there i have seen some very nice girls down there who ACTUALLY SKATE lol. i gotta get down there agen soon...... some sweet spots around there aswell.......

least you have a spot

The end to the best fuckng spot ever.

yeah they shud count themselves lucky

wat happened man......aint you got any spots

as for lucien hi is fuckin brilliant, skated with him,phillips and loui today. lucien was pulling of switch heels switch tres and switch backsides. he actually was up london yesterday were we watched while he sessioned the london bridge ten for sidewalk.

as for southbank THEM F*****N POLITICAL PRICKS ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS AWAY, EVEN IF IT MEANS PROTESTING IN DOWNING STREET.

thats true man Lucien is kinda bad still, his switches are kinda ill, saw him time ago but from wot i can remember his still kinda ill!

As for southbank its the mecca of all skate spots, so it cant dissapear...and it wont as long as im here

Peace

ok i dont know why this post was brought back...
But yeah too all you people that think south bank has gone your all fucking stupid....!!!!
Go there and see what it is. The lil banks have gone the top bit the stairs and the big banks are still there and they put blocks there and they put a fance round the skate spot so it is counted as a skate park now if i am correct.
as for shell 3-6 set that will be gone in a few weeks time.
They are putting up blind spotters every where now, it is becoming very stupid.

Dell