ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the role of socio-spatial boundaries in urban public space, and the ways that physical and semiotic boundaries mediate social activity there. It focuses on reported and recorded activities around a selection of low-key morphological interventions implemented around the South Bank as the Southbank Centre's transformation gained momentum. The chapter considers the relationship between the Southbank Centre and the skateboarders, bikers and others who use the Queen Elizabeth Hall undercroft on a regular basis. The senior Mather architect's contention that the South Bank now sort of needs the skateboarders clearly evidences Spinney's assertion that the spectacular and social nature of practices such as skateboarding, BMX and bike trials are congruent with the ideals enshrined in redevelopment plans for the South Bank. The Long Live Southbank movement's lawyers have applied to have the grey, graffiti-spattered concrete underbelly of the brutalist 1960's centre classified and protected as a village green.
