Client: Long Live Southbank & Southbank Centre
Location: London
Cost:
Phase 1: £1.1m
Completed:
Phase 1: July 2019
The Undercroft is an important part of the Southbank Centre complex. It was first discovered by skateboarders in 1973 and quickly developed into one of the most important skateboarding spots in the world. With the intention of a temporary closure, part of the Undercroft was boarded up in 2004 and has not been skated since.
FCBStudios have sensitively restored the space beneath the Queen Elizabeth Hall for skateboarding and a new learning and creative space for children and young people will be used to support the activities of the Southbank Centre's Festival Arts School Programme.
The objective of the restoration works was to reinstate the physical makeup of the Undercroft to the exact 1960s design and to merge it seamlessly with the current skate space. Iconic parts of the Undercroft including the much loved Small Banks and Wooden Ledges, legendary in skateboarding history but closed off for more than a decade have been restored.
The skate space reopens over 400sqm of new space for skating, BMXing and graffiti and gives a much-needed increase in free creative space on the South Bank of the Thames.
Flythrough the Southbank Undercroft, where the original physical makeup of the space will be reinstated as free creative space.