Harrow Skate Park

Harrow Skate Park or Harrow Solid Surf is one of only two remaining 1970's shotcrete skateparks still operating in the UK. It is located next to Harrow Leisure Centre in Wealdstone in the London Borough of Harrow, England.

Primarily because of its age and design, it is one of the most noted skateparks in the UK and is compared to other classic seventies skatepark designs such as Marina del Rey (Los Angeles) and "Pipeline" (Upland, California) in the USA.

The skatepark's planning began in 1976 and it opened in 1978 and is a noted tourist attraction. It was designed by G-Force designer Adrian Rolt and was built by Skate Park Construction, the leading skateboard park construction and design team in the UK at the time. Its pool design was based on the keyhole pool at Skateboard Heaven in Spring Valley, California.

Current features include a concrete Half-pipe, the bowl known as the 'blue bowl' or 'wedding pool', a street section with a concrete bank and a wooden quarter pipe (this section previously included a metal box and metal quarter pipe that had to be removed for safety reasons), the snakerun, and four moguls. The performance bowl was filled in a number of years ago by the council and remains out of action despite attempts to dig it out. The park did have other recent additions such as a Mini ramp, but that was destroyed by local vandals. The park operates free of charge and is open from 9:00 am till dusk.

Due to the site's uniqueness, the UK skateboarding and BMX scene use the park as a place to hang out and socialise as well as to ride the ramps. Since the seventies the park has been the starting ground for a number of professional skaters and BMX users such as Steve Douglas. Its significance has been noted by the leading architectural historian Professor Iain Borden who said it was used in the eighties by "the best-known London skaters and 'H-Boyz' (Harrow regulars)". It has been threatened with closure on a number of occasions and was out of action for a few years in the eighties. In 2003 it was reopened after the Council spent £60,000 refurbishing it and its opening celebration was attended by the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority Toby Harris, Baron Harris of Haringey and Harrow East MP and Minister for London Tony McNulty.

Read more about Harrow Skate Park:  Threat of Closure, New Leisure Centre Plans Abandoned, Harroween

Famous quotes containing the words harrow, skate and/or park:

    “Who cares what they say? It’s a nice way to live,
    Just taking what Nature is willing to give,
    Not forcing her hand with harrow and plow.”
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    To fill the hour,—that is happiness; to fill the hour, and leave no crevice for a repentance or an approval. We live amid surfaces, and the true art of life is to skate well on them.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    and the words never said,
    And the ominous, ominous dancing ahead.
    We sat in the car park till twenty to one
    And now I’m engaged to Miss Joan Hunter Dunn.
    Sir John Betjeman (1906–1984)