A kinda Byker Wall style without the gardens / wood details / bright painting, can see why it’s not popular
Alex Paterson of The Orb and Damien Hirst formerly lived in Southwyck House.[ citation needed ]
1 Like
I saw it years ago as well. Thought it was pretty crap. More mock documentary done on a very low budget. The story is believable and I’m sure people skated in the GDR, but as a skater you can tell all the skating footage is not authentically old.
1 Like
Maybe my memory of it is a bit hazy, (possibly down to the ridiculous weed intake at that point in time). Well I am ‘authentically old’ myself as well so that could play a part in it too. I am pretty sure I liked it though. Second watch required.
2 Likes
I might be being a bit harsh. I remember feeling a bit cheated by the documentary and a bit like what was the point of making this all up?
This mini-doc was on a similar theme and actually true:
2 Likes
Always liked the idea of illicit vert ramps deep in Norwegian forests, skating fueled by black metal & mushrooms
2 Likes
Just watched this, goes into quite a few of the questions raised above about design, planning, ambition, failure etc - worth a watch definitely
3 Likes
Bit different but this Basildon spot is amazing. Although I was having a dope skate there once and went to flat so hard and landed with my back on the curb and it fucked me so hard, winded, the lot
2 Likes
Good spot that.
This thing is so high.
This is a guy called Nathan Farrow…found it on the internet a few years ago. No idea who he is.
Pretty sick.
Also, there was a photo of Charlie Munro ollieing those steps behind in your photo/behind this rail. They are so long…
3 Likes
He’s from the Peterborough area iirc - used to ride for Milk Skateboards (the UK one).
He had some coverage in Sidewalk and is a bit of an ATV.
Good dude too
1 Like
Is that spot smooth enough for someone of average ability and wheel size to get to the top? Looks fun
Defo! Having a curb ramp helps but it’s fine without too, it’s like a bank to quarter and goes all the way round the car park! Ricky Oyola has a trick on the top bit too which is so wild
1 Like
The last time I was in Basildon Town Centre those steps and rails were all boarded off and the buildings opposite have been demolished (they’re bulding a cinema, or something). I think this lot might have been flattened as well.
I first saw that rail boardslid in the late 1980s by our friend Adam (on a Bod Boyle stained Glass deck) and Nigel Davies ollied those steps in what was probably the early 1990s (the run up was pretty much from the other end of the town centre, by Marks and Spencer).
As far as I know the other Basildon spots earlier in the thread are still there.
2 Likes
I can confirm there was once a Radical Banking skatepark on Penfold Street NW1, off the Edgware Road - it appeared around 1979 and lasted until the early 1980s.
It was like a smaller version of Kennington (the original layout) - it had a square, or small rectangle-shaped reservoir-type layout with roll over lips on all sides. There were perhaps two slabs of flat in between the banks.
During this period there was only one pipe at Meanwhile Two - the one with a roll over lip on one side and the grindable lip on the other. The other half pipe at Meanwhile appeared a couple of years later - and I always thought the second pipe must have been made up of modules from the then-closed Penfold Street site (given that both were put up by Westminster Council). Saying this, I have also come across a suggestion that the second pipe came from a closed park on the East Coast of England. And Scurbrampwoody says he skated Penfold Street in the late 1980s, so I could be wrong on this point.
5 Likes
Thanks for that. At last, someone who actually knows of the existence of Edgware bowl. The layout was exactly as you said.
I’m not completely 100% on the date that we skated it, it may have been mid 80’s. I wonder if the Vauxhall modular pipe was originally part of Edgware? I know that I skated that towards the end of the 80’s-1990. I don’t know the date that it went in though.
It’s really interesting about Meanwhile II. Lorne (Edwards) never mentioned that it was originally just one section, and on the only occasion I went with him both parts were in place. It’s a shame I can’t ask him about that, and the timeline of what went where and when. I do know that he was contacted by a London council, but don’t know which one, with regard to the construction of the Radical Banking modules and that was at some point a good few years after they went in. That was also in order to locate a ‘key’ type tool that was used to level the separate sections as the council were unable to find the one that they were supposed to have. Lorne did have one at some point but had lost track of what had happened to it. So maybe the council enquiry was connected to the moving of modules? I would guess that would have been around the early - mid 80’s.
I also wonder how many places adopted the Radical Banking system for building parks. I’ve heard that there are supposedly a number of them in Australia. There could well be a load of them all over the world.
Thanks again for the response- glad to know I didn’t imagine that Edgware was ever a thing. Cheers @kalson_77
Edit: Having thought about the date that I skated the Edgware, I was still at school and so it can’t have been later than ‘86 and may have been earlier.
1 Like
I found this…not looked through the comments as I’m not on FB and it won’t let me.
1 Like
Same same… but will get my wife to have a look. Cool, thanks @Londonskater
Edit: It looks as though Rob Ashby has been in contact with the Edwards family since Lorne’s passing and they are in the process of digging out any material relating to the Radical Banking skatepark projects. They are going to pass it on to Rob.
2 Likes
This account is decent, always stoked to see an Urban Goal in the wild
1 Like
Kennington and Vauxhall are two separate spots. Obviously Kennington is the Kennington bowl we all know and love(d). I skated that a fair bit, mid 80’s onwards. The Vauxhall spot was a single Meanwhile II style ditch affair. It was located in Vauxhall on some, what looked like, waste ground behind a row of terraced houses or possibly a shopping parade. It was accessible through a small alley between the buildings. It had two rollover lips like the smaller section at Meanwhile only minus the bowled out end. It was definitely of Radical Banking modular construction, that was unmistakable. I don’t know when it went in but it looked as though it had been in situ for a while when I skated it in the late 80’s-1990. So I’m wondering if that was made up of relocated pieces of Edgware or if it was unrelated and had gone up at the same sort of time as all the other parks. I also don’t know what happened to it. For all I know it could still be there hidden away ready to be rediscovered or sitting in pieces gathering dust in a council yard somewhere - more likely than not though it’s been smashed into dust or been buried and the site redeveloped. It was a bit off the beaten track and really just a curiosity and so I only skated it a couple of times. I’m not sure if I ever saw any photos from there. I only knew of it’s existence because it was listed in the RAD mag Where? Guide.
Thanks for the links. The photo of the single ditch at Meanwhile is interesting, I’ve never seen the spot like that. How nice did Kennington look when it was super smooth before the slabs began to subside? The schematics are cool too. Great stuff.
