I’ve heard BLACKBA getting thrown around, but I doubt that one’s going to stick. Sounds corny, plus this Blackfriars gem kind of has more of a Lloyd’s vibe to it anyway. It is surprising, though, that London skateboarding hasn’t settled on a name for this place yet, especially given we’ve not had a proper outdoor plaza- style spot with real space for flat ground, ledges, stairs etc, in like… Maybe ever? I’m talking somewhere with a layout that actually works as a shared public space, where groups of people enjoying delicious post-work cervezas seamlessly blend in with the post-session melting, where families feel safe enough to stop and ask if their kids can have a go, where an old mate from uni on a jog could spot you and stop for a chat…You get the picture. It works so well and for such a wide range of users that it’s hard not to think that one of the planners secretly had some of those dreamy Bordeaux/ Malmö/ Philadelphia projects in mind, and that those tiny skate stoppers were in fact just a cunning ruse to get it through the door. Maybe it’s a way to sneakily open the floodgates to many more forward-thinking shared public spaces?

Wishful thinking, obviously. If anything, we’re probably jinxing it with all this. But if it doesn’t last forever, maybe that’s fine too… There’s a certain charm to spots like these being ephemeral, and magic that comes from that now-or-never energy is undeniable. We love to romanticise that shit.

Not to mention that the trick has been done now (the one that every skater rolling through will have inevitably discussed the far-fetched feasibility of), and not just by anyone, but by the people’s champ. The man who once had a knife pulled on him outside an off-license and diffused the situation with a hug. Someone who goes out of his way to be kind to everyone he comes across, skateboarder or not, designated skate-space or not. He’s a master of bringing a room together, no matter the room, which makes this issue’s cover even more fitting…I know he finds it hilarious that he has his own grind. I wonder how he’ll feel about this place suddenly being “the Kyron spot”?