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Last week, the Southbank Centre submitted an amended planning application for their ‘Festival Wing’ scheme, as well as a new, separate planning application for their proposed replacement ‘skateable space’ under Hungerford Bridge.
If these applications are accepted, it will mean the Undercroft is lost forever, to be replaced by retail units.
Despite putting their plans on hold this summer, in order to ‘work with our communities to find the best way of balancing everyone’s needs’, Southbank Centre have consistently refused to listen to public opinion. Ignoring over 75,000 individuals who have joined the campaign for preservation, the amended application for the Festival Wing plans and the new application for the Hungerford Bridge site make clear the Southbank Centre’s aim to press on with their hugely unpopular plans to fill the Undercroft, the home of British skateboarding for four decades, with commercial and retail units.
The new ‘skateable space’ under Hungerford Bridge is not a replacement for the Undercroft, but a new programmable space to be used by the Southbank Centre for any purpose they see fit. In an “undertaking” given to Lambeth Council, Southbank Centre say that they will reserve the space ‘for the provision of arts and cultural events and activities, including use for commercial purposes and artistic rentals, related to the Owner’s programme of events and income generation as a centre for the arts.’
Head over now to sign the online objection form to register your objections with Lambeth Council and save the Undercroft!
