News

March 8, 2023 | Skate Dots

A Guided Tour of City Mill Pool Street

Feast your eyes and ears on a wonderful audio guided tour of City Mill Pool Street from our friend and Hackney Bumps legend, Sol Dhariwal 👀🔊🔀

Some of you may remember Ricky Oyola’s unforgettable guided tour of City Hall in Philadelphia many, many moons ago for 411 Video Magazine – well here’s our version!

Sol leaves no stone unturned – so make sure you turn your sound up for a full audio tour complete with added wallies, hippy jumps and even our rainbow rail in the mix. Sol shows us an exciting range of trick possibilities to recreate at City Mill Pool Street – now if it would only stop raining…🙏

Big shout out to Tom Lock too – for capturing Sol and our skate dots in all their sunny glory đŸŽ„đŸ˜ŽđŸ›č

 

Video: A Guided Tour of City Mill Pool Street

 

October 30, 2022 | Skate Dots

Meet the City Mill Skate team – UCL

As you may have guessed, it has taken the talents of a large group of people to bring the final City Mill Pool Street space to life, with huge amounts of dedication and hard work from a number of organisations including:
  • UCL
  • The Bartlett School of Architecture
  • Betongpark
  • Melanin Gals n’ Pals
  • Free Skate Mag
  • Vans
With so many different people involved in helping the City Mill Skate project along the way, we have produced a series of short films to introduce some of the dedicated people who have worked behind the scenes to make Pool Street a reality!
It’s our great pleasure to introduce you to:

Sam Wilkinson, Head of Public Art and Cultural Engagement, UCL East

As the original instigator of the City Mill Skate project, Sam has worked tirelessly to promote the idea of a skateable space on the UCL East Campus and her expertise in delivering public art projects has been vital time and time again over the course of the four years leading up the construction of City Mill Pool Street.

Iain Borden: Professor of Architecture and Urban Culture, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL

Alongside being a world renowned architecture academic and skateboard historian, Iain has been a vocal supporter of the City Mill Skate project from the very start. Iain’s celebrated books Skateboarding, Space and the City: Architecture and the Body and Skateboarding and the City: A Complete History were hugely influential in the initial thinking behind our project.
October 30, 2022 | Skate Dots

Meet the City Mill Skate team – Betongpark

Daryl Nobbs, Lead Designer, Betongpark 

Daryl is an experienced skatepark designer and founder of Betongpark Ltd, an innovative design studio that fuses elements of skatepark design with landscape architecture. As a key figure of the Hackney Bumps renovation project, Daryl has a deep understanding of creating skateable spaces within east London and has played a pivotal role in developing the research and design methods that culminated in the final City Mill Pool Street space.

Stuart Maclure, Development Manager, Betongpark

As a key member of the Betongpark team, Stuart has a huge level of experience in managing high profile construction projects, as well as playing a critical role in saving Southbank, the oldest continually used street spot in the UK, from redevelopment.
October 30, 2022 | Skate Dots

Meet the City Mill Skate team – Melanin Skate Gals & Pals

Marie Mayassi, Melanin Skate Gals & Pals

Marie Mayassi is the founder of Melanin Skate Gals & Pals, a grass roots initiative focused on building skate communities in east London and beyond that cater for the needs of those who are often excluded from sport activities such as marginalised genders, the LGBTQIA+ community, and Black and other People Of Colour.
Marie played a crucial role in our final design process for the Pool Street site, offering fresh perspectives on how best to create inclusive and dynamic skateable spaces.
October 30, 2022 | Skate Dots

Meet the City Mill Skate team – Free Skate Mag

Will Harmon, Sam Ashley and Arthur Derrien, Free Skate Mag

Will Harmon, Sam Ashley and Arthur Derrien are the founders of Free Skate Mag. With a huge knowledge of skateboard history and culture between them, their insights have been absolutely essential in filtering the skate dot ideas we received and working with the City Mill Skate and Betongpark teams to realise our partnership launch event in conjunction with Vans.
September 8, 2022 | Skate Dots

Finishing touches at City Mill Pool Street

With time running short, the Betongpark team worked their magic to add the finishing touches needed to prepare City Mill Pool Street for our opening event! 📝🎉⏳

September 1, 2022 | Skate Dots

Floor pouring time!

Ever wonder how they make skatepark floors so smooth? Check out these short clips of the Betongpark team and witness the magic in action! 🧰đŸȘ„

August 26, 2022 | Skate Dots

Week two of construction at City Mill Pool Street is complete!

The weeks are flying by at City Mill Pool Street – check out our recap clip from week 2, on-site with the Betongpark team.

August 24, 2022 | Skate Dots

Construction underway at City Mill Pool Street!

Work is well underway at City Mill Pool Street – check out this short clip of the Betongpark team putting the finishing touches to our pyramid, as well as our gallery of the first week of construction!

June 12, 2020 | Skate Dots

Introduction to Skate Dot Kits

In our original planning for City Mill Skate, we had intended to test out design ideas through live workshops and by engaging participants in DIY build events, where ideas for future skate dots could be built and subjected to practical testing.

However, the social distancing restrictions that emerged in March 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic required us to think differently about our modes of engagement – and to propose alternative ways to interact with the skate community and local public that would avoid face-to-face contact.

After some careful consideration, we decided to create special making kits and send them to workshop participants, so that they could create designs for potential skate dots from the safety of their own home.