London’s National Theater, by Denys Lasdun, was completed in
1976 was meant to house three separate theater spaces. When Lasdun was hired
for the project, it was meant to be in a different site originally. It was
later moved to its present location where the architect drew inspiration from
the Waterloo Bridge, the view of St. Paul’s, and the Somerset House. Lasdun was
interested in creating theater where people create it simply by coming together
in a space. During his time working on the project, this concept was always on
the back of his mind, because he kept a picture of Piazza San Marco in Venice
on his wall. There were plans of redevelopment for the south bank of London.
However, with an unlikely alliance from the National Theater, the English
Heritage Society, and the skateboarding community, there have had their
development efforts hindered. The submission by Simon Hickman, English Heritage’s Inspector of
Historic Buildings and Areas, complains of “insufficient understanding of the
communal value of the Undercroft area”. It states that skaters “draw their
identity from…and have emotional links to” the site. English Heritage also
claims that the South Bank Centre’s plans could have an “adverse impact on the
setting of the National Theatre in views from the Hungerford footbridge.”
Moreover, skaters state, “The street culture of the Undercroft interplays with
the more formal high culture above and is an important component of the South
Bank.”
