Celebrating 50 Years of the Southbank Undercroft: Woods Bagot Designs Skate 50

Skate 50 is an immersive exhibition celebrating 50 years of the Southbank Centre’s Undercroft Skate Space.

The Undercroft Skate Space is widely considered as the birthplace of British skateboarding. Left open to the public when the arts centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall was built in the 1960s, its concrete ledges, ramps, and pillars were adopted by skateboarders in the mid-1970s. Fifty years on, it has become one of the oldest continuously used skateboarding locations in the UK, home to a community that spans five generations and a cornerstone of creative expression.

Woods Bagot’s design for the Skate 50 exhibition space channels the Undercroft’s monolithic architecture and the creative spirit of the skateboarding scene, becoming both a tribute to and a living extension of the Southbank Centre’s inventive energy. Custom-designed furniture forms an integral part of the exhibition concept. During the exhibition, these pieces will serve as seating for screens, narrative displays and the central sound piece, while they are designed for future reuse by the Undercroft skating community once the exhibition closes.

Given that the exhibition is expected to interest a broad audience of both skating enthusiasts and general tourists, visitor experience has been crucial to the exhibition’s design. As visitors enter, the sound piece becomes audible and intensifies toward the centre, where visitors can watch a film playing on several surrounding screens, becoming immersed in image and sound.

“Like the Undercroft Skate Space itself, the exhibition embraces an improvisational spirit,” says James Khamsi, Principal at Woods Bagot. “The Undercroft was never designed for skateboarding but has been transformed by generations of skaters into an iconic cultural site.”

“Our design was inspired by research into how exhibition spaces can choreograph, rather than control, visitors’ movement,” continued Dina Khaki, Associate at Woods Bagot. “By fostering exploration and connection, the design doesn’t insist that visitors follow a fixed narrative and can instead experience Skate 50 personally.”

Mark Ball, Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre, adds:

“The Undercroft Skate Space is a vital part of our cultural make-up, a space that has been a home for contemporary culture, skateboarding, and creativity for half a century. And who better to tell these stories than the communities that have directly used it and continue to do so. In our 75th anniversary year we’re thrilled to be commemorating this iconic space, celebrating all corners of our site and the incredible stories that are embedded into our foundations.”

Skate 50 opens on Thursday, 30 April and runs until Sunday, 21 June. The exhibition is part of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary celebrations, which will take place across the UK throughout 2026.