Harrow Skate Park

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Harrow Skate Park or Harrow Solid Surf is one of the few remaining working seventies shotcrete skateparks in the UK. It is located next to Harrow Leisure Centre in Wealdstone in the London Borough of Harrow, England. It is one of the most noted skateparks in the UK and has been compared to other classic seventies skatepark designs such as Marina del Rey (Los Angeles) and "Pipeline" (Upland, California) in the USA.^[1]

The skatepark's planning began in 1976 and it opened in 1978 and is a noted tourist attraction. ^[2] It was designed by G-Force designer Adrian Rolt and was built by Skate Park Construction, the leading skateboard park construction and design team in the UK at the time. Its pool design was based on the keyhole pool at Skateboard Heaven in Spring Valley, California.^[3]

Current features include a Half-pipe, the snakerun, and 4 Moguls, but the performance bowl was filled in a number of years ago. The park did have other recent additions such as a Mini ramp, but that was destroyed by local vandals. The park operates free of charge and is open from 9.00am till dusk.

The local skateboarding and BMX scene is very friendly and locals use the park as a place to hang out and socialise as well as ride the ramps. Since the seventies the park has been the starting ground for a number of professional skaters and BMX users such as Steve Douglas. Its significance has been noted by the leading architectural historian Professor Iain Borden who said it was used in the eighties by "the best-known London skaters and 'H-Boyz' (Harrow regulars)".^[4] It has been threatened with closure on a number of occasions and was out of action for a few years in the eighties. In 2003 it was reopened after the Council spent £60,000 refurbishing it and its opening celebration was attended by the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority Toby Harris, Baron Harris of Haringey and Harrow East MP and Minister for London Tony McNulty.^[5]

[edit] Threat of Closure

In 2007 plans were announced by Harrow council to build over the site as part of a £36m project to rebuild Harrow Leisure Centre, with a new smaller building, leading to storm of protest from users and the international skateboarding community who regarded it as 'irreplaceable'. ^[6] The plan involved selling the existing site to developers. Although the Council was offering £300,000 to replace the park experts have said it will cost at least £600,000 to replace the park. ^[7] The famous skater Tony Hawk stated on the closure "If they feel that the park is truly irreplaceable, then they should keep it...I've never been, but I have seen it in magazines and heard about it through the years." ^[8] On February 6th, 2008 Sport England condemned the Leisure centre plan:

"Sport England considers the proposals to be damaging to a wide range of existing sporting interests and they would reduce opportunities for participation in sport and active recreation in the borough." Mr Durrans supported the objections already voiced by various sports groups in the borough, including Harrow and Wealdstone Swimming Club, Harrow Squash Club, Wembley and Harrow Table Tennis League and the Harrow Skatepark Users' Association.^[9]

A petition to the Prime minister against the closure has received over 1875 signatures: "It is under stood that Harrow Skate Park is to be bull dozed to build houses on but since 1976 this has been part of the history & heritage of Roller Skating, Skateboarding and BMX biking not only in Harrow but also internationally." ^[10]