Long live Southbank, London

There's a place in **London **where skateboarding, BMX, Art, filmmaking and photography meet. It's called Southbank. It's a street-like skatepark right next to Themsen. Before the **skaters **took over, there was basically nothing happening here. Now it has the *trademark *as the *birthplace *of British skateboarding. It all began in 1973. The **Barcelona **version of this article would be Macba.

A few years ago the **Southbank **was under threat. Apparently, *central planning *in **London **had in mind to take down the **skatepark **and build retail stores here instead. Of course, this pissed of a lot of people in **London **and also around the world. They see **Southbank **as special. Even people who pass by **Southbank **stops to watch the skate show. **Skateboarders **are street artists who don't ask for money.

This space was actually much bigger before. They put up walls to *hide *big parts of the space. In 2004, central planning closed a big part of the space. They are doing a **fundraiser **now to unlock the bigger part of Southbank. If the fundraiser goes well, they will unlock it until 2018. There is even more to unlock. In the long-term future, they want to have the whole **Southbank **opened!

After **skateboarders **found out their place could be taken down, they started a campaign to prevent the central planning to engage.

In** January 2014**,** Long Live Southbank** gathered and gave to** Lambeth Town Hall** over 30,000 unique disapprovals to the** ‘Festival Wing’ programs**, causing the** Southbank Centre’s** planning applications to be the most **despised **in UK history.

In September 2014, Long Live Southbank signed a deal to let the **skatepark **remain as it is for a long time into the future.

It took them 17 months to save Southbank. It was saved in September 2014. This place has a lot of history behind it.** 5 decades of skateboarding has happened here.**

You can actually help *unlocking *the full Southbank by giving a donation.