You too!
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Now that @anonymity posted the photo of Mac at Edgware bowl from 1988 with Edgware still fully intact, your lead that it was an east coast modular park that became the second part of Meanwhile II is a goer. Gonz ollied the gap in ‘87 and I was already aware at that point that there were two sections before that. So Meanwhile II with two ditches and Edgware Road existed contemporaneously. Likewise, the Vauxhall pipe/ ditch, whatever you want to call it, would already have been in place before Edgware went. More questions than answers eh 
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What a fantastic tangent. Great sleuthing all.
Please forgive the only tangentially relevant Morse gif.
@kalson_77 I’ve not directly addressed you before but very pleased to have you on the forum.
Thanks for your excellent posts.
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Further intel on the NORWICH ANOMALY
UPDATE FROM NORWICH SPECS LEWIS.
“One of the early Eaton park skaters told me, it was put in earlham park in the early 80s with 2 bowls placed shallow end to end 6 foot apart, joined by metal poles so you could theoretically grind from one to other, don’t remember anything about who built it or it being relocated but I do remember he said he was waiting for it and went there after school first day so maybe it did get relocated, then parents in the north of the city complained they never got cool stuff like this for their kids so the council split it up and put 1 in heartsease and 1 one Eaton park, to keep parents happy , I’ll message the guy and see if he can tell the whole story” I LIKE THIS KINDA STUFF
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I’m pretty sure Joxa has spoken some knowledge on this beast too.
Sorry @anonymity @Scurbrampwoody - I completely missed the picture of Mac at Edgware, before my last post, and as it turned out was pointlessly continuing to speculate!
But I can’t believe the East coast modular park theory is accurate though. Seems too far away. Now I think it seems more likely that Lorne Edwards was just able to supply another pipe to Westmintser Council in the early 1980s… or they had one in storage that they decided to assemble at Meanwhile 2.
(The backstory to why I wasn’t able to say for sure whether Meanwhile 2 and Edgware Road co-existed after the early 1980s was that I stopped going to the latter because of some hostile locals (non-skaters)).
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Unless… This is another theory about where the second pipe at Meanwhile 2 came from.
I had previously come across this blog from 2011 - and discounted it. Now, after today’s posts, I’m wondering if it could be half correct. Object 21 : Meanwhile 2 Skatepark | The History of Westbourne in 25 Objects
It suggests both pipes at Meanwhile 2 were moved to their current location after first being sited “alongside” the original Meanwhile Gardens skatepark - at Westbourne Grove - in 1978.
I discounted this theory because I skated the original Meanwhile on occasions and wasn’t aware of the Radical Banking System pipes ever being there. And I always thought the grindable/roll over bank combo was sited at Royal Oak from the word go.
But now I’m wondering whether the blog is generalising. Could the second Meanwhile 2 pipe have been sited a little further away from the original Meanwhile skate park, still under the Westway, but near Latimer Road or Ladbroke Grove perhaps? Then later on, in the early 1980s, was it moved to Royal Oak to join the existing pipe there?
Hopefully, this is my final word on this particular topic!
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It’s Mike John and it was shot by Mike John
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Possibly the best skateboarding photo ever taken
I don’t think the Meanwhile 2 modules were ever at the Meanwhile Gardens site. I’ve never seen a photo or heard that idea. Mind you, I had always thought that there had always been the two at Royal Oak from the start until you posted that photo. So what do I know? Do you know for how long there was just the one there? It could be that the photo was taken during the process of locating both of them there. What I mean is maybe the two sections were always planned to have gone in there but the construction and installation didn’t take place at exactly the same time. One was manufactured and installed, there was a period of time whilst the second was being made and transported before it’s installation. Just a thought.
Incidentally, I don’t think that Meanwhile Gardens was the first skatepark in the UK. I think it’s pretty well established that Skate Escape in Portland was the first. A lot of parks were built between 1977-78 and they popped up in quick succession in and around London - Skate City ‘77 and Rolling Thunder and Stockwell ‘78 just off the top of my head. Slades Farm in Dorset was 1977 and Southsea was ‘78. I’m sure Bedminster was around then, same goes for Rom… and the list goes on.
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I think the Edgeware Road one got moved to Fakenham, but has now gone: https://youtu.be/lzAJ8a5efVQ
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Thanks for that. What a day. Confirmation that Edgware was real. A photo of said bowl. Some dates to confirm when it was still skateable, and now an answer to the mystery of where it went. Excellent. Just one question needs answering now - whatever happened to Fakenham bowl?
Edit: here’s the answer thanks to @smasher:
‘’The bowl you ask about was in Fakenham, it was originally at Edgeware road in London at a youth club, I’ve spoken to folk (inc.a certain owner of Death skateboards) who would jump the fence when it was closed as they where too old to skate it legit! It was going to be scrapped in the late 1980’s so the skaters from Fakenham managed to organise some transport of the bowl (thanks dad’s haulage company) and it was re-assembled at the recreation ground and enjoyed for many more years. The local council where’t keen on it, it was a graffiti magnet. There was a suggestion it was painted green to “blend” in, but this never happened. A small hole appeared at one of the joins and the council, rather than repair it, they tore it down and another piece of skate heritage was lost forever.’’
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Big up Sam A.
embedded below
Info from the uploader: “This is the Fakenham bowl which started its life in a youth club in London near Kennington Bowl. Got moved by a friends dads haulage company to Fakenham much to the annoyance of the local skaters who had to jump a fence at night to skate it as it was in the the youth club and designated a kids / learner bowl, but the locals knew it had the best lines for carving.”
So I had remembered the Norwich relocation bit correctly, just got the wrong park.
Cheers Sam!
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Cracking first post too Sherlock
Woah. Opens his set with a banger, there. Amazing.
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Completely agree @Scurbrampwoody - Portland was always reported to have been the first UK skatepark. Meanwhile Gardens popped up in 1977, but after Portland. That blog I linked to was very speculative.
However, it’s worth noting that the creator of the whole Meanwhile Gardens project did claim in his book - accessible here as a PDF via the Meanwhile Gardens website https://tinyurl.com/psjjfdur - to have had the thought of building a skatepark in the spring of 1976. That’s almost prehistoric days in UK skateboarding, the South Bank was only just really taking off as a location, and many people were probably mostly riding their boards down hills…
Can’t say for sure how long there was a single pipe at Meanwhile 2 - definitely more than a year, possibly even two or longer Seems a little too long for a section to be on order. I also vaguely recall the second section had graffiti on it when it was installed. But I wouldn’t want to discount your idea for definite.
And so the Edgware Road bowl moved to Fakenham… I was recalling stories about the second Meanwhile 2 section possibly coming from a site on the East coast of England. Fakenham is not the East coast of England, but certainly the East of England. Seems like I was getting my directions/stories mixed up on that front.
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From that info I’d say that I was probably wrong with my suggestion. It’d be interesting to find out how Meanwhile 2 came to be. The only way would probably be to find someone who was a London local from bitd. They’d also need to be around the 60 years old mark too, (and enjoy chatting)..paging Davross.