Lucie Loves… Long Live Southbank // Stop! Sign the petition and save the birthplace of British street skating
This weekend jmgcreative and I headed over to Southbank to marvel at the skateboarders and sign the Long Live Southbank petition to save their home - the Undercroft.
Every day people flock to Southbank to soak up a little bit of must-see London culture. They do it because they want to feel part of something unique. The Undercroft is just that - it’s unique and globally renowned as THE birthplace of British skateboarding. For over 40 years it has been described as “the beating heart of London skateboarding” - watch this short piece from a Documentary called Rollin Through the Decades - Directed by Winstan Whitter for Beaquarr Productions.
But it’s now under threat since plans were announced to make alterations to the Hayward and Queen Elizabeth Hall - dubbed the “Festival Wing”.
Since December 2013, the Long Live Southbank campaign has gathered momentum and won the support of more than 90,000 members to try and stop their skate/bmx/grafitti space/creative home being wiped out and replaced with something that they hope will “deliver a larger and more ambitious arts and cultural programme for all Southbank Centre’s visitors to enjoy.”
The skateboarders and BMXers are being asked to accept a new space (that they don’t want or need) under Hungerford Bridge, 120 metres south of their near Jubilee Gardens.
My old uni friend, and pretty amazing image-maker Darren John, designed this ‘preservation, not relocation’ print to raise money for the Long Live Southbank campaign. JMG bought one for us.
What can you do?
If you’d like to join JMG and I in helping these guys save the space for us and future generations for years to come, you can object here by signing the petition: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9DNCRKK
Read more about Long Live Southbank here: http://www.llsb.com or check out the other side here: http://www.southbankundercroft.com
This isn’t just a space; it’s a piece of history and as the stickers say “you can’t move history."
Photography © Lucie Kerley