Text by Chris Lawton
Photography by Tom Quigley
'Skateboard-friendly' public space opened in central Nottingham, designed and funded by local skaters.
Last Saturday, a unique and free-to-use ‘skateboard-friendly space’ opened for public use. Tram Line Spot, near the last resting place of the legendary Broadmarsh Banks, and close to the Nottingham Contemporary Art Gallery and the new Nottingham College campus, is a purpose-built, community-designed skate spot that can be skated whatever the weather, one of the first of its kind in Europe. Along with the team from Betongpark, Skate Nottingham had been working with skate-urbanism legends including Rich 'Badger' Holland, David Gough and Bedir Bekar since autumn 2019 to develop a masterplan for the site.
Skate Nottingham also looked closely at projects in Malmo, Copenhagen, Tampere and Bordeaux, and pushed hard for the space to not be a 'skatepark' - which Nottingham has plenty of already, with two more in the pipeline for 2023 - demonstrating the benefits of hard work and good community organising to a local skate scene. Instead, Tram Line Spot has been designed to blend into and complement the wider public realm, placing skateboarding at the centre of city life. The spot also aims to be welcoming to other users, including quad and inline-skaters, street artists and young people studying at the College or visiting the Nottingham Contemporary. Working with a range of local councils, Skate Nottingham have helped get 1-2 new skateparks built around Nottingham every single year since 2019, so the non-profit had the resources and momentum to push for Tram Line Spot to be very different.
Myke Trowbridge - crook.
Hot on the heels of City Mill in London, Tram Line Spot pushes the envelope for what’s possible in skateable public realm across Europe. It comprises a flat plaza space, protected from the elements by the tram viaduct overhead. The plaza is intersected by a two-set and surrounded by a skateable perimeter ledge, at varying heights - including a long, higher ledge by the steps. Within the plaza, Skate Nottingham and Betongpark worked together to install three steel 'skateable sculptures', a Pier 7 manual pad, a wallie wedge and a steep steel hipped bank, which is also a tribute to the original Broadmarsh Banks spot. The hoardings that form the inside boundary of the space create a legal graffiti wall and outdoor exhibition space, which will be curated collaboratively with Skate Nottingham and the U.K. flagship Montana Store, specialist graffiti paint suppliers based within the Sneinton Market hot spot.
Last Saturday’s ‘soft opening’ included an open skate jam and graffiti session. More than 70 people braved the extremely cold weather to take part, starting with a free session for the young people (aged 7-14) who attend Skate Nottingham’s weekly Edu-Skate lessons. Edu-Skate is a positive youth development programme that focuses on life-skills and was developed by Concrete Jungle Foundation in their programmes at Freedom Skatepark, Jamaica. Nottingham is currently the only place in the U.K. to deliver Edu-Skate. There will be a much larger ‘official’ Tram Line Spot opening event in the spring, with a range of sponsors.
The skateable sculptures were funded by the community. Skate Nottingham’s Crowdfunder U.K. campaign raised £16,810 with 235 individual supporters. This included £1,000 kindly donated by legendary Nottingham nightclub Rock City, and £7,500 from the Sport England ‘Active Together’ fund. In addition to the funds raised through the Crowdfunder U.K. campaign, Skate Nottingham also received £5,000 from Skateboard GB, the National Governing Body. The three bespoke steel forms were then fabricated by Betongpark, the awesome humans behind the temporary skateable installation at The Strand, Westminster, last autumn, and the recent, sensitive redevelopment of the historic Stockwell Skatepark, Brixton, as well as City Mill.
Following the opening, an Awards for All grant from The National Lottery Community Fund will enable Skate Nottingham to deliver free activities at the site. These will include beginners’ skateboarding sessions with trained coaches, creative workshops and exhibitions. The main opening event is then likely to be in early April.
Kevin Harris - nosemanny.
Because of the unexpected additional costs to get the site ready, resources for the activities programme are now incredibly tight – so any further donations and other support, collaboration and partnering would be hugely appreciated. The Crowdfunder campaign page remains open for donations at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/tramlinespot
There is a dedicated Instagram page for Tram Line Spot, which will share photos and clips filmed there, if you use the hashtag #tramlinespot or tag @tramlinespot
The events and activities programme will be on Skate Nottingham’s social media, @skatenottingham on Instagram and Facebook and @NottinghamSkate on Twitter, and on our brand new website www.skatenottingham.co.uk.