Portal:Transport/Selected article/Week 31, 2010

Harrow Skate Park is one of the few remaining working seventies shotcrete skateparks in the UK. It is located next to Harrow Leisure Centre in Wealdstone in the London Borough of Harrow, England. It is one of the most noted skateparks in the UK and has been 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 secion 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.

The local skateboarding and BMX scene is very friendly and locals use the park as a place to hang out and socialise as well as 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.

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