ABSTRACT
Like many waterfront areas across the world, London’s South Bank is currently being reimagined with an emphasis on imagery and spectacle as part of a retail-led development. This chapter discusses the ways in which more playful forms of cycling, such as Trials and BMX, fit into the makeover of the area. The unconventional use of these spaces by the riders would appear to be at odds with the mobilities that are more commonly normalised as ‘appropriate’ in a pedestrian public space such as the South Bank. However, in this chapter I build upon the idea of the mobility fix outlined in previous chapters to illustrate how more playful cycling practices have become economised to enhance the dynamism and liveability of the area.
The first half of the chapter is split into two parts: the first section briefly introduces the key tenets of the redevelopment, positioning it alongside other similar waterfront and retail-led regeneration projects. In particular I note the importance of dynamism, experience and spectacle to the success of such developments. In the next section I demonstrate that through a gradual agencement of management and spatial accommodation on the South Bank, specific qualities of mobilities such as Trials, BMX and skateboarding are emphasised and economised to produce a behavioural surplus that is harnessed in the logic of capital accumulation underpinning the remaking of waterfront retail spaces.
