Hull will be the UK’s first officially designated skate city. With over twenty years of skateboarding history, good street spots, ten outdoor skateparks, and one indoor skatepark, the city will align itself with the Skate Malmö and Skate Melbourne campaigns.

Words: Daryl Mersom | Illustration: Liam Painter | Pics: As stated

Earlier this year when Hull City Council opened the West Park Plaza, Mark English, who runs Rockcity, took the opportunity to pitch his idea of the skate city to the council.

“The council will ‘consider skateboarding’ for all new public space, buildings and so forth. Some areas will not be suitable, but at sites where skateboarding can happen safely (i.e. away from traffic) the city will ‘build in’ skateboarding, rather than work to stop it.”

“The fact that there is an experienced skatepark organization to be a partner to the city makes a fundamental difference,” Gustav Edén of Skate Malmö tells me. “So far it seems they have had positive feedback from the City of Hull and will be seizing the opportunity to integrate skateboarding functionality in the very fabric of the redeveloped city. This is an incredible situation to be in that can really place Hull at the forefront of creating an active multifunctional urban environment.”

»This is something that has been brewing in Hull. Looking at cities like Malmö and Copenhagen, the common theme seems to be that there has been a build up to a point where things must change. I think that is probably going to be the case in other places that have a history, or a maturity«

The campaign fits in well with Hull becoming the UK City of Culture 2017, and the hope is that the public will now be more open minded and receptive to it. But this is not all to do with Hull’s City of Culture status, as Mark let me know.