Dear Mayor Boris Johnson
We’ve met a couple of times. I hear your’re supporting the skateboarders in the campaign to maintain the undercroft and the new development of The Festival Wing at Southbank Centre. My office was atop the the undercroft between 2006 and 2012. Boris? Was there a time when the skateboarders were losing the campaign? They have the best lawyers, the best online campaign and the best press. Yet they’ve created the powerful illlusion of being under resourced and underdogs bullied by the big bad mono cultural upper class corporation.If the PR had had been as aggressive from Southbank then they – the skateboarders – would be a band of near exclusively male middle class mono cultural bullies taking away the possibility of a children’s centre and community centre from the working people of South London.
But everybody loves an underdog. And an underdog in an undercroft is too good to miss, so congratulations Boris. You backed the boys and strode onto the battlefield declaring your support for the winners only after they won. We are less of a city for how easily we have not supported our greatest arts centre. I expected more of us. Southbank centre will continue working with and for minorities and marginalized voices. Southbank centre will give the majority the quality experience we have come to expect . Southbank Centre will continue to offer its free spaces and keep up its conversation with London and the world not least through its diverse artists and audience. There is another account of what has happened here mayor. When the audit is done no-one will be listening to the results. That’s politics. That’s PR.
Yours Sincerely
Lemn Sissay
Judging by last summer’s ‘art’ on the SouthBank, the experience of which was like being in a Tesco value version of Cath Kidson’s kitchen, the skateboard boys are welcome to it. Leave it to them and the overpriced toffee off peanuts and the overpriced fake fifties ice-cream or coffee or doughnut fake chrome fake fifties winnebegos and the fake street fake entertainers. There. People from different parts of the country, don’t even bovva.
Are you Bonkers?
The skateboarders are not opposing or obstructing the Festival Wing plans whatsoever. The Southbank Centre would have us believe it’s the Undercroft or the Festival Wing, indulge the recalcitrants or ‘Art For All’. But, by the Southbank Centre’s own figures, the money generated by retail outlets in the Undercroft would only contribute 8% to the redevelopment. The reality is that if the Southbank Centre weren’t so hellbent on getting skateboarders out of the Undercroft the franchise restaurants could be put under the Hungerford Bridge and financed with the 1 million pounds for the unwanted skatepark. In the face of overwhelming public support for preserving the Undercroft I just don’t understand why the Southbank Centre refuse to do this.
Before Boris’ statement, I didn’t doubt that the Southbank Centre would get their way, reputations and jobs must be on the line, there’s a lot of money to be made for all involved, and the skateboarders lack the funding to compete with the Southbank Centre PR machine. The Southbank Centre have the contacts and financial might to publish stories and print adverts in national newspapers, the political savvy to focus their efforts on lobbying council members, and the unscrupulousness to distort their own public data..
http://ampp3d.mirror.co.uk/2014/01/02/71-or-43-6-did-the-southbank-centre-skew-their-own-survey-results/
But perhaps the most disconcerting indicator is that Lambeth Council’s ‘Southbank – The Facts’ webpage reads like the Southbank Centre’s own publicity information – “the world famous Southbank Centre” and “new arts/culture” facilities will be situated at the Undercroft. It’s not going to be a Starbucks we’ve been reassured, but it will certainly be occupied by franchise coffee shops and restaurants.
And the reason the skateboarders have the upper hand in the online debate is because the majority of public don’t support the destruction of the Undercroft, and the supporters are far more passionate than those of the Southbank Centre.
So yes, I thought that 40 years of local heritage and a cultural landmark would be destroyed, more land used by the public would be given over to the private sector, and the epicenter of British skateboarding would be misappropriated and turned into retail outlets.
But you did get one thing right – If the Undercroft remains the Southbank Centre will continue to offer its free spaces… and will continue working with and for minorities and marginalized voices..
My second home was the port-o-cabin atop the undercroft at Southbank Centre. It looked out across The Thames along Waterloo bridge. The echoing purr and satisfying clack of the skateboarders below was the soundtrack to my life for 6 years. I was artist in residence there from 2006 to 2012.
The breadth of Southbank Centre inspires. It provides the lighting, security and insurance for the skateboarders and The resident Orchestras. They co-exist. They are opposites of the cultural spectrum and it works. London has seen a transformation in Southbank Centre.
But when that transformation includes moving the skateboarders an hundred yards away they flipped their skates and said “No way”. Change is part of culture and growth. I don’t hate them – the skateboarders – I just don’t agree with them.
So SBCorp say they have a problem. They, like ALL institutions want to grow. So whats stopping them, They will say Cash or lack or funding. Call it what you like. Again this is a constant in all funded institutions. So whats changed of late. Well in a room,a few years back a small group of very very well paid individuals controlling the SBCorp have decided to propose they have a solution. And not just a solution but a bloody good one. One they can pour all their moans and gripes of the last few decades into. So I am talking about bucket loads. And we the public are of course not privy to this part of planning, this is private and completely deniable on every level. So back In march without anybody else Knowing previously of SBCorp’s plan’s. They Proudly Announce (for want of better words) “We have a Solution” . But those pulling the stings are not stupid, they may lack emotions but they are the elite. They Know anything major in the center of London is going to create ” strong reactions ” So this is where the Propaganda really starts up. Suddenly we are hearing nothing but problems; Funding Problems, Facility Problems, Image problems, Local Education problems anything the Propaganda can throw at it. So who created the problems and the projection of ” problems “. The same people funding the Propaganda. who is forcing the un-comprising solution, the same people who are labeling problems. So why is their no Compromising to be had ???? no – real compromise has ever been on the table they are ONLY interested in Their-own-Solution to their own criteria of problems.
My second home was the port-o-cabin atop the undercroft at Southbank Centre. It looked out across The Thames along Waterloo bridge. The echoing purr and satisfying clack of the skateboarders below was the soundtrack to my life for 6 years. I was artist in residence there from 2006 to 2012.
The breadth of Southbank Centre inspires. It provides the lighting, security and insurance for the skateboarders and The resident Orchestras. They co-exist. They are opposites of the cultural spectrum and it works. London has seen a transformation in Southbank Centre.
But when that transformation includes moving the skateboarders an hundred yards away they flipped their skates and said “No way”. Change is part of culture and growth. I don’t hate them – the skateboarders – I just don’t agree with them.
hi, Lemn, how are you?
Having read Boris Johnson’s memo, it was clear to me it was based on facts & the situation, rather than on whether one party was an ‘underdog’ or not.
As you have tried to paint a picture in your post, I thought I would respond with these facts which seem to me to counter some of your points. I suspect you do not know some of these.
1. Money.
The Southbank Centre appear to have been given £3.3 million up to this point for the Festival Wing campaign. (hard to paint as an underdog)
2. PR.
The Southbank Centre appear to have used at least 4 PR/comms/research agencies. (again, hard to paint as an underdog)
3. Online Campaign.
The Southbank Centre had access to an email list of 200,000 members & friends at the start of their campaign, and existing relationships with thousands of funders, celebrities, PR people, not to mention a full time staff. Your CEO was Chief Exec of the CoI, which used to be the government’s own marketing & communications agency. (Tough to say that’s a poor basis for online campaigning)
4. Connections.
The Southbank Centre board includes people from BP, Land Securities, etc. A specific outreach campaign took place to lobby interested parties about the Festival Wing project. (Tough, again, to paint the SBC as underdogs here)
I am a member of the Southbank Centre, I have spent several thousand pounds there, and I was very disappointed with the way all of this was handled.
I will happily meet up with you to discuss this if you like.
dan
My second home was the port-o-cabin atop the undercroft at Southbank Centre. It looked out across The Thames along Waterloo bridge. The echoing purr and satisfying clack of the skateboarders below was the soundtrack to my life for 6 years. I was artist in residence there from 2006 to 2012.
The breadth of Southbank Centre inspires. It provides the lighting, security and insurance for the skateboarders and The resident Orchestras. They co-exist. They are opposites of the cultural spectrum and it works. London has seen a transformation in Southbank Centre.
But when that transformation includes moving the skateboarders an hundred yards away they flipped their skates and said “No way”. Change is part of culture and growth. I don’t hate them – the skateboarders – I just don’t agree with them.
re “lighting, security and insurance for the skateboarders ”
The lighting is a permanent feature of the QEH, it existed before the skateboarders used the space, it is not ‘for’ the skateboarders. Having said that, in the early 90s SBC tried to stop the skateboarding during performances by switching off the lights. The skaters didn’t care but members of the public did get mugged whilst walking through (back when you could still do that), so the lights came back on.
Not sure who the security or the insurance is for, I suspect it’s just SBC covering their arses. If you speak to any of the skaters there, they will all tell they do not want or need it.
It’s very depressing to read this Lemn.
You are supposed to have a creative, inquiring mind yet you have swallowed the PR idiocy of the Southbank Centre hook, line and sinker.
I work as an architect. My son is a skater but is also a dancer and has performed at the QEH. I love the Southbank Centre and what it represents and provides, but the simple fact is that the board has commissioned a very poor piece of design through a flawed process and refusing to accept that there is an alternative.
The skaters are not in any way opposed to the activities of the SBC, the communities which use it or to regeneration in principle. But those, such as yourself, who uncritically back the SBC are asking us to believe that, in a £150m proposal, there is no feasible option which reconsiders the use of a couple of hundred square metres of existing space? That is, frankly, absurd.
Your position simply has no credibility, and you need to rethink it.
Regards
Richard Lindley
My second home was the port-o-cabin atop the undercroft at Southbank Centre. It looked out across The Thames along Waterloo bridge. The echoing purr and satisfying clack of the skateboarders below was the soundtrack to my life for 6 years. I was artist in residence there from 2006 to 2012.
The breadth of Southbank Centre inspires. It provides the lighting, security and insurance for the skateboarders and The resident Orchestras. They co-exist. They are opposites of the cultural spectrum and it works. London has seen a transformation in Southbank Centre.
But when that transformation includes moving the skateboarders an hundred yards away they flipped their skates and said “No way”. Change is part of culture and growth. I don’t hate them – the skateboarders – I just don’t agree with them.
“They have the best lawyers, the best online campaign and the best press.”
So you are saying they have the best legal advisors (largely unpaid I understand), the best creative minds and have made the best case in the media? Sounds like they have earned their place on the South Bank.
For what it’s worth, I am one of the financiers of the campaign (to the tune of a tenner). I am a short fat middle-aged woman who does not skate, never has skated and is unlikely to do so now. But the moment I heard that the Undercroft was under threat I remembered all the many years when the young people there were the only bright spot on an otherwise bleak stretch of concrete and wanted to help. To their credit, the South Bank Centre eventually took their inspiration from the skaters’ energy and have made it a lively destination. But that’s enough now. What’s going on now is just empire-building. If the skating space is still free in a hundred years it’ll mean more than a hundred coffee shops. (And if you think the SBC doesn’t properly serve its multi-cultural community at present, take it up with the SBC and ask what their excuse is.)
This is an amazing example of the attitude of the Southbank Centre.
Southbank are the ones coming up with all the plans and making the decisions, how exactly are they in a weaker position? Those plans were being forcefully driven through without consultation with the people that would be affected. The campaign to stop it was being largely ignored.
Statistics showing public disapproval with the scheme were manipulated by Southbank, who chose to ignore poll respondents who disagreed with their plans. A dishonest act, but perhaps you are right that they have pretty poor PR advice if they thought they would get away with it.
Your own act of pasting the same reply to all the people who are trying to converse with you does not show someone willing to engage or willing to listen to points being made. You are merely sticking your fingers in your ears and chanting the same refrain.
The undercroft is a cultural landmark, a major part of its cultural relevance stems directly from the fact that it was not an area designed for skateboarding; skateboarding grew there out of improvisation over the past 40 years. These plans throw that heritage away, they are either arrogant or willfully obtuse in their inability to recognise the difference between a found space recognised and a Fisher Price: My First Skatepark.
But for people, perched atop the Southbank Centre, who only see skateboarders as a source of purrs and satisfying clacks, is that attitude really surprising?
I don’t speak for the Southbank Centre.
I apologise.
I accept that you just happen to agree with all their points and are happy to write posts trotting out the party line while ignoring their manipulation of statistics.
We are lucky to have such independent voices engaging in the debate.
John, You are proving my case. Please don’t.
I would like to genuinely apologise for that previous post. The tone was mean and uncalled for.