Skateboarding and Birmingham

Skateboarding

Birmingham

SkateboardingBirmingham

Skateboarding and BirminghaM

Arc6115 Critical Study

Investigation into the displacement of skateboarding in Birmingham city center, Weighing issues and benefits to justify its Implementation to the urban fabric.

“Forward” The civic motto of the city of Birmingham, Located in the west midlands, Since the 1800s it’s been taken too literally with its constant transformations from industrial Victorian centre to a modernist brutal epicentre and more recently a glitzy economic hub. In recent years there’s been this shame towards the post war architecture of the city, many of which have been demolished. A significant one is the central library which was at a point the epicentre for skateboarding in the midlands (Fig.1). The central library provided a space for those who gathered there although they may not have adhered to the societal norm of the time. Skateboarding is often stereotypes as destructive, anti-social and a nuisance, yet in recent times there has been extensive research done how skating can actually be beneficial. At the same time its important to find out why there’s been a large decline in skateboarding in Birmingham city centre. It’s possible that there’s an issue to what Henri Lefebvre would describe as the ‘right to the city’ in which the character of skateboarding could be ostracised from the city intentionally.

To better understand how this came to be its important to go back to the disastrous post war planning carried out by city engineer Herbert Manzoni, who caused architectural vandalism by demolishing significant and still functional Victorian buildings to pave way for his techno utopian vision (Flatman, 2008). The most controversial one of these was demolishing Martin and Chamberlains old central library, not for the new central library but for the ring road. Manzoni was famously quoted saying:

“I have never been certain as to the value of tangible links with the past. They are often more sentimental than valuable….. As to Birmingham buildings, there is little of real worth in our architecture, its replacement should be an improvement, provided we keep a few monuments as museum pieces to past ages”

The result was this inverted city of cars above pedestrian. The new bullring shopping centre was designed to prioritize vehicles and it did not take long for people to speak out against this. In 1971 the exclusion of pedestrians was strongly criticised by shoppers, shop owners, planners and even councillors which led to the city centre being declared a traffic free zone the following year. In the midst of the 1970s the problems of the car centric city started to shine through the cracks with issues of corruption, oil crisis and proletariat protests.

(circa) Downfall of original skateboards 1950 (Circa) skateboarding originating in 1950s California

BBC Documenting transatlantic “Skateboard craze” 1977 (circa) Many skateparks opened throughout the UK, mostly commercial and did not last long 1973 Introduction of the Urethane wheel, unlimiting the capability of what skaters can do

(Circa) Beginning of street skating

Read and Destroy Magazine inception (documenting British skateboarding)

(Circa) Street skating becoming more popular while also condemned by certain groups of public 1985 (Circa) Birmingham central library is the peak of the midlands skate scene

Author (2024) Figure

2, Edited collage of thrasher magazine

Modernism + Civic ground = Skateboarders

Amidst the aforementioned chaos, in 1974 the central library was opened (Fig. 3), a brutalist, inverted ziggurat, located between chamberlain square and centenary square, it was the flagship monument of the envisioned paradise circus, the largest non-national library in Europe. An overly optimistic name, paradise’s role was to act as a cluster of civic importance within the city, “comprising a school of music, drama centre, athletic institute, public house and bus station” states Andy Howlett, who recounted the buildings life in his documentary Paradise lost (2021). The paradise scheme was designed by John Madin (design group) in association with J.A. Maudsley, the city architect. Unlike the rest of the city which was engulfed in roads, Madin prioritised the pedestrians, elevating them with walkways and gifting them an idyllic space clad in marble, surrounded by vegetation and water. (Hickman, 1970) The end result was far from the drawings, the city couldn’t pay for the cladding and the civic ideal was limited to the eventually brutal library, prince Charles famously quoted it as being a “place for burning books, rather than keeping them” (Howlett, 2021).

Enter skateboarding, coming over from the Atlantic on UK shores in the 1970s. Youth in England quickly took it on. Its clear to see its success in post war Britain as a result of Modernism which was used in post war planning in England as a way to bring the countryside to the city, decluttering the industrial towns and cleansing them with simplicity. Modernists had a god complex of planning from above, creating high density high rises, open grounds, labyrinthian walkways and subways thinking the common person would adapt to their vision (Moor, 2008). What actually happened was alienation, crime, and decay of the people and urban environment. Its effects are still present in locales of present day Birmingham. Although many post war structures and places were poorly designed for the human, it was however appreciated by the skateboarders. Essentially an urban sport, it’s the one most linked to the urban fabric of the city. Skaters pay attention to the smallest details in architecture, acknowledging certain features such as banks, stairs, rails, steps and much more (Fig. 2) compared to the general public and at times even those within the design fields (Trufleman and Borden, 2019). The alignments of the two phenomena led to the library becoming the hotspot of the midlands skateboarding in the 80s. The ground floor of the central library and nearby area was an odd amalgamation of staircases, columns, walls, pedestrian subways, steps and benches. Alongside it being sheltered architecturally it made a perfect place for skating, it was the midlands answer to London’s south bank undercroft, arguably the most historically significant site for the sport in the UK (Howlett, 2021). In order to find out more on what drove people there, I spoke to Kris Ludford, owner of Ideal, the staple skateboarding store in Birmingham since 1991. Kris recalls skating in the 80s and highlights the post war city’s smooth surfaces and architecture being what gravitated skaters to the city at the same time he mentions the neglect as a contributing factor towards the space; “It was just an open space with tarmac floor. It wasn’t particularly nice, so you know you wouldn’t go there and have a pleasant time so it was great for skateboarding. Because that’s what skateboarders do, they occupy spaces that are generally unloved or ignored or neglected. I think as soon as that place was built and as soon as skateboarding became popular it would have been utilised” States Ludford. This Appropriation of neglected space is begins the conversation of skaters “right to the city” (of Birmingham).

At its peak, the collective skaters used the central library as the meeting point. There could be around a hundred people around library at certain times and usually 20 to 30 skaters around the library on certain days of the week, the library itself did not restrict the skaters, it rather enabled them as it was a meeting point and its position within the city centre allowed for the skateable spot to extend to nearby squares, subways and beyond (Preston, 2015 and Ludford 2024). This high concentration of skaters turns the library from a public place (whether privately or publicly owned) into a common, these are extensions of public spaces, where in this case the skaters collectively appropriated a disused space.

Figure 3, Photos of central library before and after paradise forum

Source: Brown, G. (2013) GALLERY: Goodbye Birmingham Central Library. Available at: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/gallery-goodbye-birminghamcentral-library-4731792.

Displacing the collective

Brutalist architecture often conveys a dystopian and authoritarian ideals through its monumentality and materiality, despite being made with socially conscious features, for example the library had an open atrium and ground floor trying its best welcoming people in despite its scale invoking fear, this intentional openness juxtaposes the current library, limited to its roughly 9-5 opening times and a slight overhang to protect the parked bicycles at the front.

The central library’s downfall starts with the socialist nature of its design. Raising the building freed the space in the true sense and it invited anyone in there, the problem was that the general public had a lack of interest which links back to the alienating aesthetic order within the space, on top of this, the lack of light, enclosure and monolithic frame are similar to points used by architect and theorist, Oscar Newman to criticise the poor public spaces of postmodern Highrise architecture (1972), this is justified as the end the users of the space were drunk alcoholics, homeless and skaters (Preston, 2015). Contrary to looking at the space negatively, Sociologist William H. Whyte brings forth the argument of character being added to the space, these would be the undesirables (Homeless) who are respectful to the environment and the odd person, which would the be the skater in this situation, a person enjoying themselves, reassuring normality. Whyte (1981) believed that good public spaces would tolerate them and indeed people had back then. There would be an audience during lunch times, with the public around the library and the steps surrounding chamberlain square (Ludford, 2024). The success of skating in Birmingham city centre was undeniable, people were coming from all around the midlands to use the city as their leisure, this brings all kinds of benefits which will be expanded on later but the main reason to the downfall of the skating common of the library leads to this idea of “malification of space”, in which this theme of global consumption is raised, a product of neoliberal ideas, the city looked at the location with “use” value against “exchange” value. Use value would be a location or property which is valued for its use or quality of life, for skaters the use value would be enjoyment of the central library and its features, contrasting this is exchange value, focused on increasing profits through investments or consumption. (Borden, 2019 and Harvey & Wachsmuth, 2012).

The failure of the motor city ideal was being felt through the 1970s and 80s and Birmingham like many large cities around the world competes for capital investments in this period of booming globalisation (Flatman, 2008). Whether the city was aiming for this or not it was beginning to shed its urban planning mistakes and turn to privatization, an early development of this was the addition of paradise forum, a conversion of the open ground floor space used by the skating collective now turned into shops, many of which where franchises to global corporations. In the eyes of the city its clear to see that “exchange” value was prioritised as it was beneficial for capital but also used as a method to bring in the wider public into the area formerly occupied by the marginalised “undesirables”. This was the end of the central library scene yet skating would continue thriving until the 2000s in the city. However its also at this point and the coming changes of the city which lead to the eventual displacement of skateboarders over the next decades.

Visual Crime against the city

Cliché of skateboarding from an outsiders point of view sees the activity taking place in public place as uncivil or anti-social. This was perceived true in the 1990s with the rise in street skating and the subculture of skating clarifying into an opposition of normative society. Society was falling deeper into consumerism while skaters had their own music, styles, culture and capital interests which did not conform to that. Unlike other hobbies or cultures it was conventionally disruptive, there was no structure like in a fancy club or an organised team sport (Borden, 2019).

These points clarify the city’s methods to prevent skateboarding over the years, like many cities around the world there’s this theme of “Aesthetic order”: going to work, being productive, studying, dressing in a certain way. Skaters did not just do that visually but also expressively against the backdrop of the city. The British journal of criminology speaks on the matter of skating as focus for “deviant leisure” studies in the past. Certain themes with the activity tend to be linked to transgression, risk taking and resistance which link to criminal activities. Deviant leisure can be categorised as those activities that subvert or reject norms, some deviant leisure can be legal yet many can include criminal activities such as trespassing and much worse (Dickinson, S. Millie, A. and Peters (2022). Its for these accusations that city officials and some members of the public would be against skateboarding. The practice of riding around the public and subverting the use of generic public features like benches or steps is against the ideal image the city is trying to portray, this leads to planners and architects joining in to subtly enforce methods of social exclusion to skaters. Beyond banning skating in parts of the city in the 90s, skaters are deterred by design. Skate stoppers are the most popular method, used around the world as small objects or forms in the public areas to stop smooth surfaces. Other methods also include, policing, security guards and simply public perception (Dickinson, S. Millie, A. & Peters, 2022).

Ian Borden, architectural historian who has done extensive research into skating, argues against its associations of deviant Leisure by referring to philosopher Henri Lefebvre by claiming skating as an act of political and social critique. Borden describes this as a “performative critique” in which the individual would use its entire body to subvert the use of architecture, for example a hand rail, an object of safety is now used by skaters as an obstacle to overcome and this in turn flips the perception of said object from safety to danger. The simple act of skating in the early days was to simulate the act of surfing (2019). These changes from societal norms are what drive the cities, including Birmingham to reject the activity. This became and is continuing to become more profound over the last couple of decades, there has been this homogenisation of public space in Birmingham, the city has become more privatised over the years with a lot of land including paradise (circus) being sold to the same developer (Howlett, 2021). What were once civic entities within the city become private land with a maximal urban design opening generic coffee shops, retail and offices for the end goal of profit. Most times these developments create claimed public places, where you are free to roam within the societal standard: walking, sitting, consuming. The current state of paradise circus is subtly private and its rare to see any skateboarding occurring there. These nuances are the reasons behind the current scene in Birmingham. What was once point of interest for a collective became a fragmentation of smaller spaces. The central library acted as a meeting point, once closed the surrounding squares were still usable, once these were sold by the city, skaters had to find new locations. Many of which were towards the outskirts of the city, places like Aston banks, Fiveways, and more recently Millenium point were for the last resort yet now these are the main spots luring skaters in the city and beyond (Ludford). When you look at the location of these former secondary areas you can see that they fall around the edge of the city where. This fragmentation of the collective almost feels orchestrated. Although the city may be benefitting from some capital gain coming from these high end shops and offices there’s irony in the way that those who valued the city the most have now been pushed out of it. Howlett describes the ignorance of the central library in the push for its demolition by councillors, like it was something they were ashamed about (2021), in similar fashion the skaters defiance against the aesthetic order of the public space was something the city would not want to adhere to.

Author (2024) Figure 4, photograph of skateboards, Ideal, Birmingham

Author (2024) Figure 5, photograph of interior Ideal, Birmingham

Author (2024) Figure 6, ‘Jagger’ Skating around chamberlain square, page from R.A.D. Magazine, Source: Ball, J. (2020) Jagger Interview. Available at: https://blog.slamcity.com/ jagger-interview/ (Accessed: 16 January 2024).

The skateable City

Taking a positive turn, in this next section we’ll be discussing the many benefits that skateboarding can bring to the city when its incorporated. The city of Malmö will be referred as an example due to its parallels with Birmingham. Both cities had been struggling following their de-industrialisation and both have uncertainty of weather and grey skies. these are contrasts of favoured cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and Barcelona. Yet In the last two decades Malmö’s acceptance of skateboarding has put it above the most favoured cities for skateboarding. Contrasting this Birmingham was proliferating privatization due to its struggling economic shift. (Book and Svanborg-Edén, 2020). Malmö’s scene started off in the 1990s as a youth program which eventually led to the construction of a skateparks, this happened due to the goals for public space of the skateboarders and those of the municipality aligning, leading to the first concrete skatepark, eventually this joint venture of the differing groups shaped the city while also bringing exposure to it locally and internationally, what resulted was an international appeal. This of course brings in tourism which is beneficial to the economy however the success was large enough to attract the investments of massive corporation like Vans, which chose the city as a location for their ‘Park Series’ events. The city also worked closely with Vans to make the skatepark for the event fixed instead of temporary ((Book & Svanborg-Edén, 2020 and Borden 2019). It took this opportunity to make a public space and embracing a shift in character for the city. When Birmingham was in the spotlight as a destination for midlands skating it can be argued that it too received some benefits, the popularity of the central library in the 1980s led to people coming from surrounding areas such as Wolverhampton and Coventry to the city, while they may not have contributed economically they added to the image of the city. You can see this on a page of from R.A.D. (Read and Destroy) Magazine, which covered the skating scene in the UK. Daniel ‘Jagger’ Ball, a prominent skater from Wolverhampton who skated in Birmingham in the 80s and 90s was pictured in certain issues. You can see prominent parts of chamberlain square in the backdrop (Fig.6). This had also acted as exposure for the city, with readers around the country travelling all the way to the central library (Ball, 2020). The key difference between Birmingham’s peak of skating and Malmö’s is the times these phenomena were occurring, the formers reign was more a product of its time as well as the unintended civic architecture, the latter is the embracement of a subculture in more accepting times and geography.

Arguably one of the most important aspects of skateboarding is its resilience. Borden uses a quote from comedian Jerry Seinfeld to summarise this perfectly: To learn to do a skateboard trick, many times you’ve got to get something wrong until you get it right. And you hurt yourself. You learn to do that trick, now you got a life lesson. Whenever I see those skateboard kids, I think, Those kids will be all right.

The repetitive practice of skateboarding extends beyond the skatepark or street, for decades skateboarders have been ostracised by municipalities, security, policing and some members of the public, yet it still continues. Architects and planners get in the way of spots and new ones sprung up at times due to necessity. This constant effort for a right to the city eventually leads to them creating their own right. These lead to the DIY skateparks, and it is for this reason that Malmö is so successful. The city has a strong DIY history with placemaking by the skaters long before city intervention to improve skateable places. Even with the city joining forces, the local involvement of stakeholders was key, the skaters of Malmo stressed the importance of skater run construction companies for the builds. This relates to the ideal of a self-constructed city, where the instant demolition of an informal place significant to socially excluded group is doubted and a progressive approach is used (Governeur, 2022).

Birmingham has also had its own success with Bournebrook DIY (Fig 7 and 8), the first self-built skate park to be granted official skatepark status in England. It started with local skater Shaun Boyle after lockdown from simple clearing and ledges to a collaborative effort including the community. Part of its success relates to catering for the ‘creative class’s contributing to the city’s imagery and attracting a younger demographic poised to give back to its environment (Borden, 2019)

However, the park’s location outside the city centre brings up issues about urban fragmentation. A visit revealed that skaters, mainly university students from the University of Birmingham, found it convenient but preferred not to skate in the city centre due to its distance. Similarly, city center skaters were unaware of Bournbrook DIY’s existence.

The DIY’s success as a social place is undeniable but it does struggle with scale and location. Because its out of the city, its not an ideal gathering spot and although there is a common its limited in its presence in Birmingham. This is reminiscent to the proletariats struggle for place and the question of “who produces space?” by Lefebvre. If the heyday of skating is ever to return to Birmingham city centre should It not include a dedicated space for gathering (Harvey & Wachsmuth, 2012).

Author (2024) Figure 7, Bournbrook skatepark

Author (2024) Figure 8, Skaters using Bournbrook DIY

Becoming Invisible

Street skating can be seen as controversial due to the damage it causes to public spaces. Skaters constantly try to be deterred by hostile architecture yet if it is still skateable it doesn’t change anything, at times the objects such as skate stoppers can be seen as an extra challenge to overcome. This is why there needs to be a shift into implementing skate friendly features within the urban environment. In Birmingham an example of this is East-side city park which I will refer to as Millenium point. This location is an outdoor public space facing towards the coming HS2 station, the park is made up of Steps and benches with large spaces in between. Theres always a guarantee to see skaters there in summer daily and throughout the week in winter. Millenium point feels as if it was almost designed for skaters, the long flowing steps are perfect for transition skating (Borden, 2019) and when speaking to one of the skaters they highlighted how the steps separated everyone giving an individual space as well as complimenting the smooth flat surface. Kris Ludford also mentions how once this location was developed outside Millenium point skaters quickly occupied it, IDEAL actually paid for the wooden blocks that are often used by everyone using the space. Surprisingly the city actually became involved and instead of discussing improvements they ended up adding metal strips throughout the floor to dissuade skating. Since there is no skatepark to practice skating safely for beginners this is a vital location to the city. A key point mentioned by skaters there is that “there’s too many people in the city centre” because Millenium point is not a dedicated space for skaters it brings the issue of the HS2 construction looming over the high foot traffic pushing skaters out. Theres no clear answer to this, however Ludford reassures us that it “will still happen, unless they put a gravel surface” (Author, Ludford and Group Discussion 2, 2024). Even when ignoring the skaters just analysing the public space shows its benefits (Fig. 9) to the wider public. The space is often used by students people watching at the top and pedestrians always comfortably move across it. Beyond this many of the features that William H. Whyte describes to create human places such as Ledges, corners, benches create a social environment.

Author (2024) Figure 9, Illustration of activity around east side city park (outside Millenium point)

Author (2024) Figure 10, Skater outside, east side city park (outside Millenium point)

11,

Conclusion

Birmingham skating history is deeply rooted into the architecture of the 1970s (Fig1). although the urban environment at the time is heavily criticised by the majority it’s also what turned neglected buildings such as the central library into icons within the city. The central library short lived appreciation makes it a truly social space as skaters, whose perception is negative had a place to create a common. It’s the city’s shift to prioritizing capital gain over social or civic duties to the citizens which eventually pushed out and/or fragmented the skateboarding collective. Now it may seem that skating may not adhere to globalisation although it was a product of it as it somehow ended up from the sunny beaches of California to the concrete blocks in Birmingham; the reason I mention this is because skating needs to adapt to capitalising itself, through supporting skate run companies, whether they are large or independent and incorporating skater opinion within the municipality of Birmingham. Birmingham as a city is destroying its culture at a fast pace, more valuation needs to be carried out by city officials before demolition. Even though the central library was a skating common for a short time, it’s the zeitgeist of many skaters of the 80s. Lastly the benefits of skateboarding go beyond monetary means. It can create social and cultural importance to locations and this in turn will benefit the city’s capital in the long term.

Author (2024) Figure

Skaters outside east side city park (outside Millenium point)

References

Books

Flatman, B. (2008) Birmingham : shaping the city. London: Riba Publishing.

Hickman, D. (1970) Birmingham. 1st Edition. Studio Vista.

Thornton, R. (2009) Lost Buildings of Birmingham. History Press.

Moor, M. and Rowland, J. (2008) Urban design futures. London: Routledge.

Governeur, D., Zeybekoğlu SadriS. and Sadri, H. (2022) Cities without capitalism. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, Ny: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Iain Borden (2019) Skateboarding and the city : a complete history. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts.

Harvey, D. Wachsmuth, D. Brenner, N., Marcuse, P. and Mayer, M. (2012) Cities for people, not for profit : critical urban theory and the right to the city. London: Routledge.

Mcleod, V. and Churly, C. (2018) Atlas of brutalist architecture. New York: Phaidon Press.

Website:

Brumagem (2023). OED - Oxford english Dictionary. Available at: https://www.oed.com/dictionary/ brummagem_adj?tl=true (Accessed: 23 January 2024).

Olah, N. and Preston , M. (2015) Remembering One of England’s Legendary Brutalist Skate Spots. Available at: https://www.vice.com/en/article/mv5z83/paradise-lost-two-legendary-birminghamskaters-remember-a-legendary-birmingham-skate-spot-282 (Accessed: 10 January 2024).

Joa, P. (2016) Is Malmö the most skateboarding-friendly city in the world? Available at: https://www. huckmag.com/article/vans-malmo-skate (Accessed: 21 January 2024).

Gall, C. (2023) Volunteer-built skate park in Bournbrook saved from closure. BBC News, 23 July. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-66115463 (Accessed: 27 January 2024).

Sevilla-Buitrago, A. (2022) Publicity: commoning as an act of survival. Available at: https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/keynote/publicity-commoning-as-an-act-ofsurvival#:~:text=Commoning%2C%20in%20turn%2C%20tends%20to (Accessed: 6 September 2023).

Journals and Reports:

GUNN, S. (2017) RING ROAD: BIRMINGHAM AND THE COLLAPSE OF THE MOTOR CITY IDEAL IN 1970s BRITAIN. Cambridge University Press 2017, 61 (1): 227–248. doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/ s0018246x16000613.

Buchanan, C. (1963) The Buchanan Report: Review. The Geographical Journal, 130 (1): 125. doi:https://doi.org/10.2307/1794277.

Dickinson, S. Millie, A. and Peters (2022) Street Skateboarding and the Aesthetic Order of Public Spaces. The British Journal of Criminology 2022, 62 (1) 1454-1469. Doi: 10.1093/bjc/azab109

Book, K. and Svanborg Edén, G. (2020) Malmö – the skateboarding city: a multi-level approach for developing and marketing a city through user-driven partnerships. International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, 22 (1): 164–178. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/ijsms-05-2020-0101.

Documentaries and Television:

Blitz Cities ep 5 Birmingham (Documentary) . BBC2, England, 5 August 2016, 30 Minutes https:// learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/0D0B456C?bcast=122231842 (Accessed 24 Jan 2024)

A New Way Home – Birmingham Slum Clearance (Television). BBC, England, 1959, 20 Minutes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St34bfnaxmA (Accessed 24 Jan 2024)

Note: Repeat showing in 2009 by BBC parliament, Reported by Douglas Jones.

Andrew Marr’s History of Modern Britain, Paradise Lost, 19:00 05/02/2010, BBC2 England, 60 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/006BC131?bcast=41266762 (Accessed 24 Jan 2024)

Interviews

Author, (2024) Interview with Kris Ludford of IDEAL skateboarding.

Author, (2024) Group Discussion 1, Regular skateboarders at Bournbrook DIY, Selly Oak (conversation with notes)

Author, (2024) Group Discussion 2, Regular skateboarders outside Millenium point, Birmingham (Conversation with notes)

Mars, R. (2013) In and Out of LOVE (Podcast). Available at: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/ episode-71-in-and-out-of-love/transcript/ (Accessed: 22 November 2023).

Trufelman , A. and Mars, R. (2019) The Pool and the Stream Redux. Available at: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-pool-and-the-stream-redux/transcript/ (Accessed: 27 December 2023).

Ball, J. (2020) Jagger Interview. Available at: https://blog.slamcity.com/jagger-interview/ (Accessed: 16 January 2024).

Figures

Author (2024) Cover, Cover

Author (2024) Figure 1, Timeline of events culminating to skating boom around central library

Author (2024) Figure 2 , Edited collage of thrasher magazine

Author (2024) Figure 3, Photos of central library before and after paradise forum

Source: Brown, G. (2013) GALLERY: Goodbye Birmingham Central Library. Available at: https://www. birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/gallery-goodbye-birmingham-central-library-4731792.

Author (2024) Figure 4, photograph of skateboards, Ideal, Birmingham

Author (2024) Figure 5, photograph of interior Ideal, Birmingham

Author (2024) Figure 6, ‘Jagger’ Skating around chamberlain square, page from R.A.D. Magazine,

Source: Ball, J. (2020) Jagger Interview. Available at: https://blog.slamcity.com/jagger-interview/ (Accessed: 16 January 2024).

Author (2024) Figure 7, Bournbrook skatepark

Author (2024) Figure 8, Skaters using Bournbrook DIY

Author (2024) Figure 9, Illustration of activity around east side city park (outside Millenium point)

Author (2024) Figure 10, Skater outside, east side city park (outside Millenium point)

Author (2024) Figure 11, Skaters outside east side city park (outside Millenium point)