Southbank Centre commemorates 50 years of the Undercroft Skate Space with multimedia exhibition Skate 50

Undercroft Skate Space, 1989 © Tim Leighton Boyce_Curtis McCann, Southbank. Images courtesy The Read and Destroy Archive

To mark 50 years of the Undercroft Skate Space, the Southbank Centre will present Skate
50 (30 April – 21 June 2026), a multimedia exhibition telling the history of the iconic
skateboarding space and the communities it has fostered over the past half century.

Developed alongside active members of the Southbank skate community, Skate 50 will
include new commissions utilising photography, moving image and sound to delve into the
stories that have shaped one of the most recognisable spaces in skate culture.

The Undercroft Skate Space is widely considered as the birthplace of British skateboarding.
A space left open to the public when the Queen Elizabeth Hall was built in the 1960s, its
concrete ledges, ramps, and pillars were then adopted by skateboarders in the mid 1970s.
Fifty years on and it is now one of the oldest continuously used skateboarding locations in
the UK, home to a community that spans five generations and a cornerstone of creative
expression.

From archive footage, to fashion-forward portraiture of the noughties and contemporary
depictions of the skate space today, Skate 50 will present a variety of documentary style
films made up of moving image and photography, interspersed with stop-frame animations
and soundscapes to tell the story of the Undercroft Skate Space. Keeping the skate
community at the heart of the project, Skate 50 stems from a series of workshops facilitated
by filmmaker Winstan Whitter, bringing together different generations who have used the
space over the years to identify notable events across the five decades.

Featured artists – all of whom have a personal connection to skateboarding – include
filmmakers Winstan Whitter, Dan Magee and Jack Brooks, founder of skatewear brand
Palace, Lev Tanju, animator Sofia Negri, skate collective Keep Rolling Project and sound
artist Beatrice Dillon.

Mark Ball, Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre, says: “The Undercroft Skate Space
is a vital part of the Southbank Centre’s cultural make-up, a space that has been a home for
contemporary culture, skateboarding and creativity for half a century. And who better to tell
these stories than the communities that have directly used it and continue to do so. In the
Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary year we’re thrilled to be commemorating this iconic
space, celebrating all corners of our site and the incredible stories that are embedded into
our foundations.”

Filmmaker and skateboarder Winstan Whitter, says: “The South Bank Undercroft offered
me a space I could hold with my friends, to fully express myself growing up there as in my
early teens to adulthood. It’s an extremely important space for young people, to have free
spaces they can hold which is still echoed today and beyond”.

Shane O’Brian, a London skateboarder who first came to the Southbank skate space
around 1976, says: “Everyone knows the Southbank around the world, it’s iconic. Back in the
day, if someone asked if you were a ‘Southbanker’ you’d proudly say yes – you had that title,
you had your belonging. I’m 60 years old, and I’m still a skater, I’m still here now. The
Southbank skate space has shaped my life from a kid of 10 to 60, with a community that has
lasted decades.”

Skate 50 is part of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary celebrations, which will take
place across 2026 both at the Southbank Centre in London and across the UK. Skate 50 is
curated by Curator Cedar Lewisohn, Assistant Curator Mark Healy and Curatorial Assistant
Mollie Jones with exhibition design by Woods Bagot.

To coincide with Skate 50 and Go Skateboarding Day in June, the BFI will showcase a
curated skate cinema programme in venue at BFI Southbank and online on BFI Player,
celebrating skateboarding’s unique ability to unlock creativity; from stills photography and
fashion to music and guerrilla filmmaking. PUSH PLAY (19-21 June) will include shorts,
features, premieres, workshops and talks with established filmmakers discussing their roots
in skating, alongside emerging voices from within the global community. PUSH PLAY
proposes skate cinema as a vibrant cultural space for dialogue between cities, generations,
and creative practices, beyond nostalgia or surface subculture.

More info: https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/