Nottingham’s forbidden skaters are repaving the city’s landscape

In 2000, Nottingham officially banned skating in public places. Located in England’s east Midlands, Nottingham wasn’t just another city – it was a skateboarding hub, home to several skate shops and Sidewalk and Document, the two biggest UK skate magazines at the time. But with the turn of the millennium, Nottingham City Council – alongside other cities across the UK – introduced a bylaw that prohibited the sport outside of designated skateparks. It not only pushed out the skaters, but a whole culture of community, youth expression and support.

A decade later came the austerity years of the coalition government, which, combined with disappearing third spaces and youth clubs, led to growing issues for the city’s young people. ​“As soon as there was a change of government in 2010, Nottingham was one of the cities that got really badly hammered,” says Chris Lawton, one of the co-founders of Skate Nottingham, a skateboarding nonprofit that was launched in 2017. ​“You started seeing increasing homelessness, crime, and neglect of public spaces.”

In response, the remaining skate community took matters into their own hands, from building DIY skate spots in underused spaces, to picking up litter left on the streets. ​“It felt wrong that one of the poorest cities in Britain, which had so few resources, was using some of those resources to chase kids around on skateboards,” says Lawton. ​“Especially when those kids were doing good things.”

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This tension became the origin of Skate Nottingham: a community-led initiative born out of advocacy, frustration, and a desire to help the city see skateboarding not as the problem, but as part of the solution. The organisation helps people access the sport through providing sessions for beginners, workshops on skate filming and photography, construction projects, and the organisation of public events and festivals.

One of the group’s first projects took place in Sneinton Market, a public plaza next to a working-class neighbourhood in the city. The council wanted to build a skatepark nearby – partly to justify kicking skaters out, according to Lawton. ​“They engaged us early on to help design it,” he explains. ​“Then they ran out of money, which is a consistent story. But we made it work.” 

From then on, Skate Nottingham began to grow as a community-first organisation. They launched girls-only skate sessions – some of the first in the country – and hosted free workshops, jams and trips to places like Malmö, Sweden, where skating is embedded in urban planning. The city began to take notice, and listen to what the skaters had to say.

“They dropped the whole idea of enforcement and flipped it around. They started using this term permissiveness,” explains Lawton. ​“You can skate in any public realm in the city and you won’t get told to stop.”

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Technically, the bylaw still exists. A skateboarder grinding a rail in town could technically see them fined up to £500. But a Freedom of Information request by Skate Nottingham revealed it hasn’t been enforced since the mid-2000s. Although no-skateboarding signs still linger at sites like Sneinton Market, the city’s attitude has shifted. The skaters aren’t just being recognised as users of public space, but many are seeing them as community builders and a vital part of Nottingham’s urban landscape.

In today’s context, Nottingham still faces staggering levels of disadvantage. The east Midlands region receives the lowest share of public funding per capita of anywhere in the UK and ranks one of the lowest in the Youth Opportunity Index. Homelessness, youth crime, and youth suicides are among the highest in the country. The city council itself has also announced effective bankruptcy. ​“It’s not about making the city good for skateboarding,” explains Lawton. ​“It’s about making the city see skateboarding as good for them.”

One of the standout examples is Tram Line Spot, launched in 2023 – one of the UK’s first city-centre, skate-friendly spaces, situated near the city’s former legendary skate spot Broadmarsh Banks. Tucked beneath Nottingham’s tram network near the train station, the spot was crowdfunded and supported by the National Lottery’s Awards for All, and serves as a space to host free skate sessions and workshops. 

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But the struggles of the city soon became the struggles of Tram Line Spot – rough sleeping, street crime, and substance use began to show up. ​“It became a physical manifestation of the city’s challenges,” says Lawton. ​“But it also put us in the middle of it, where we could actually do something.”

Through running a series of free events, construction workshops and coaching sessions, the Tram Line Spot turned into a space that was regularly populated with skaters. What was once a concrete wasteland in the heart of the Nottingham had now become a positive space for creativity, sport and community – particularly in warmer months. ​“We’ve been the only soldiers on the ground holding back this wave of horror, while there’s been no significant public resource to do anything about it,” he continues. ​“We’ve grown up skateboarding in this city, so we really care about it. We think we can help.”

One of the organisation’s key phrases is ​“custodianship” – the idea that skaters naturally take ownership of the space they inhabit. Their presence makes places feel safer, more active, and more watched. ​“You’ve got people filming, coaching each other, just being there. That creates a sense of natural community,” says Lawton. Surveys carried out by Skate Nottingham back this up, with young people – and their parents – agreeing they feel safer when skaters are around. ​“We don’t really struggle with skateboarding being seen as antisocial in Nottingham [anymore],” he adds.

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The group has just secured another National Lottery grant and is gearing up for its first major skate festival since 2021, which will take place across multiple venues this September and feature skateable sculptures installed around the city, film screenings, and panel talks. And a new indoor exhibition and workshop space is also in the works for the city centre, developed alongside other grassroots social enterprises and the DIY arts scene.

Beyond the city itself, Skate Nottingham is working on developing a half-a-million-pound skate park in Stapleford, a former mining town just outside of Nottingham’s boundaries. Entirely community-led, it plans to feature a full park and continuous skateable path winding around the site. ​“We hope to punch above our weight for a medium-sized UK city,” says Tom Quigley, Skate Nottingham’s creative programmes director. ​“Cities like San Francisco, Malmö, Bordeaux, Tampere – they’re known globally for their skate heritage. We want Nottingham to stand up there with the giants.”

With over 40 years of skate history behind it, Nottingham is proving that skating isn’t just about tricks – it’s about reclaiming space and refusing to be pushed out. ​“We’re not only super excited about Nottingham’s past history,” Quigley adds. ​“But we’re writing this era of history – right now.”

For more information and to support Skate Nottingham, visit its official website.

Mol­ly Bak­er is a free­lance jour­nal­ist. Fol­low her on Insta­gram.

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