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Skateboarders are silhouetted as they perform tricks over the concrete architecture of the undercroft, a space beneath the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall. Beyond the skateboarders members of the public passing by on the riverside stop to watch.

Undercroft Skate Space

Are you even a London skateboarder if you’ve never skated here?

Beneath the Queen Elizabeth Hall building, aka the Undercroft, is the concrete playground that’s been the beating heart of our city’s skateboard culture for five decades.

The Undercroft wasn’t designed as a skate park. This patch of concrete ledges, pillars and stairs was left open to the public by architects when the Queen Elizabeth Hall was built in the 1960s, but as early as 1973, the city’s skateboarders adopted it as their own. It now lays claim to being the world’s oldest continually used skate spot.

Since 2013, the Undercroft Skate Space has been preserved through collaboration with Long Live Southbank, an activist group of skaters originally formed to push back against a planned redevelopment of the space. In 2017, Long Live Southbank worked with the us to renovate the Undercroft, in a project that added new lights, replaced sections of the concrete and reopened a large section of the space.

‘To me, the epitome of skateboarding is what is going on here… skateboarding is Southbank’

Chad Muska, American pro skater

Young skateboarders in action at the undercroft skate space in 1976; in the foreground one skateboarder pulls along a nother one who is sitting on his board.
Undercroft Skate Park at the Southbank Centre in 1976. Photo by Brian Gittings. Courtesy of Long Live Southbank.
View larger image 1 of 4. Young skateboarders in action at the undercroft skate space in 1976; in the foreground one skateboarder pulls along a nother one who is sitting on his board.
A vintage image of a skateboarders in action at the Undercroft at the Southbank Centre, the skateboarders are silhouetted by the light coming into the space from behind them
Undercroft Skate Park at the Southbank Centre. Photo by Stéphane Decool. Courtesy of Long Live Southbank.
View larger image 2 of 4. A vintage image of a skateboarders in action at the Undercroft at the Southbank Centre, the skateboarders are silhouetted by the light coming into the space from behind them
A vintage image of a skateboarder lying on the floor with their board at the Undercroft at the Southbank Centre
Undercroft Skate Park at the Southbank Centre. Photo by Stéphane Decool. Courtesy of Long Live Southbank.
View larger image 3 of 4. A vintage image of a skateboarder lying on the floor with their board at the Undercroft at the Southbank Centre
A vintage image of a skateboarder in action at the Undercroft at the Southbank Centre
Undercroft Skate Park at the Southbank Centre. Photo by Stéphane Decool. Courtesy of Long Live Southbank.
View larger image 4 of 4. A vintage image of a skateboarder in action at the Undercroft at the Southbank Centre

For your visit

Queen Elizabeth Hall Southbank Centre

The Queen Elizabeth Hall is open from 90 minutes before events start until they finish. It’s closed at all other times.

Queen Elizabeth Hall building at Southbank Centre View larger image

Plan your visit

The Queen Elizabeth Hall is home to both our second-largest auditorium and the Purcell Room.

Getting here

Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.

The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues.  More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.

We’re cash-free

Please note that we’re unable to accept cash payments across our venues.

Access

We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.

All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access.

All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.

Food & drink

From coffee to cocktails, filling favourites to fine dining, plus some of London’s best street food – it’s all here at the Southbank Centre.

Places to eat and drink whilst you’re here