On any given day, the open plaza in Sneinton Market will be alive with the rattle of skateboard wheels, with people of all ages and backgrounds coming from all over the city and wider county to skate and socialise, share ideas, start creative projects and spend their money at the nearby shops, cafes and bars. In my role as Community Development Officer for Skateboard GB, I’m working with towns and cities across the UK who are now looking to replicate some of the benefits this unique space in Nottingham enjoys.
Last autumn, Sneinton Market plaza turned ten years old. To open our Skateboarding in the City festival, funded by the National Lottery in September 2021, Skate Nottingham celebrated with a temporary photography exhibition on the hoardings that bordered the plaza, collecting the best images of the skateboarding and graffiti that have become synonymous with the space over the last decade. This Easter Sunday, Tom Quigley, previously Leftlion photo editor, further marked the occasion with a new zine that curates seen and unseen work by photographers from all over the world, accompanied by an impromptu gathering of almost 100 skateboarders for a half day of skating at what has become a hotspot for the sport and wider culture internationally.
In common with other famous cultural assets like London’s Southbank Centre and Barcelona’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Sneinton Market wasn’t designed for skateboarding and other forms of spontaneous physical activity, but is accidentally perfect – which makes it all the more valuable. Skate Nottingham have worked closely with Malmö in Southern Sweden and Tampere, in Finland, which have both purposively developed the potential for skateboarding as a magnet to attract and retain young people, creatives and entrepreneurs. A visit from Tampere’s Kaarikoirat (‘The Ramp Dogs’) social enterprise in 2019, supported by the Finnish Embassy and Finnish Film Council, cemented Sneinton Market’s importance as a jewel in the crown of UK skate culture.
Sneinton Life, a community group who act as unofficial custodians and hype-men for the space, have more than 2,000 followers on Instagram and co-organised the informal get together on Easter Sunday, which also included giveaways from local up-and-coming streetwear company Honest Skateboards, who’s aesthetic channels the influences of hours spent skating Sneinton Market by the brand’s young founder Fred Naylor. The role of Sneinton Market as a crucible for creative entrepreneurship also stems from the relationships and frequent collaborations between the skaters and neighbouring businesses, including Montana, Dizzy Ink, Backlit Gallery and By Our Hands We Make Our Way. Artist Scarce, who works at Art of Football, worked with Tom Quigley to create the designs that accompanied the exhibition in September and also created the iconic broken skateboard heart that adorns the pavilion at nearby King Edward Park.
In addition to celebrating the vibrancy, buzz and interconnectedness between Sneinton’s creative businesses and skateboarders over the last decade, the zine also celebrates the sense of safety and caring community enabled by the space. Jane Jacobs, the grandmother of modern urbanism, wrote in the early 1960s about the value of “healthy street life” and security provided by “eyes on the street” that comes from regular usage of a space by diverse groups of people. The #MeToo movement and terrible murder of Sarah Everard heightened awareness of the safety of women and girls in urban spaces. NTU are investigating what it means to be a skateboarder and a woman in their groundbreaking ‘Girl Skater’ project funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Testimony from Sneinton Market suggests that the presence of skateboarders, as a highly civically-minded sub-culture, significantly helps to make the space ‘feel’ safer. On the back of the new zine, young resident Emily is quoted saying: “I always feel safe walking through Sneinton Market at night as I know the skaters will be there.”
As the skaters work closely with Nottingham City Council, Skateboard GB and sponsors Habito Mortgages to develop a new multi-use, purpose built ‘skate friendly’ space beneath the tram viaduct on Sussex Street, at the foot of the Contemporary, we’ll be looking closely at what works at Sneinton Market and how we can continue to create and sustain similarly inclusive, vibrant spaces in our city.
