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Vintage Southsea Skatepark

Vintage Southsea Skatepark

Recently one of Claire Sambrook’s many discoveries of vintage photos, etc of Southsea and Portsmouth stood out in particular for a few reasons. Southsea Skatepark was before the 1970s a rollerskating rink open to the public and it seems that there were few photos of the rink as it was, this photo give a glimpse of both sides of the interior plus the beautiful old entrance. By the looks of it the old entrance is located roughly where the new skatepark cafe is being built (sadly nowhere near as architecturally interesting). Bit of a shame the park doesn’t still have this look. Skate Time!


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  1. claire sambrook

    10 December

    also check out another in colour . . http://www.flickr.com/photos/create_up/5248068129/

  2. Tina

    10 December

    I can remember going to the skating rink with my friends every week after school. That was in the ’70s. But even before that in 1950’s my mum went there as part of a dancing team called the Skaterskades. She was 16 and I have some old photos of her wearing her costume and roller skates selling the programmes before the show.

  3. Tina

    10 December

    If you would like to see the photos I can give copies of them to Ben Mills as they are pictures of his Grandmother.

  4. boneless

    10 December

    Wow – what a great find!
    Does this mean Southsea is historically the oldest skatepark in the UK?

  5. Tristan Savage

    10 December

    @ Tina. That would be amazing. Would love to see those photos and put them up.

  6. Tina

    10 December

    OK. Thanks. I’ll e-mail the pictures to Ben and ask him to pass them on to you.

  7. claire sambrook

    10 December

    I think a book just about this park would be good. Also include the skateboarding.
    Um . . yes.

  8. Stace

    13 December

    Guys,

    How would I go about getting a copy of the Skaterink picture?

    Thanks in advance

  9. claire sambrook

    13 December

    Hi Stace – I took this in Portsmouth City Museum records office. They have a ton of stuff like this. I plan to go down and spend more time going through. You can make a copy of it at the museum and they can also scan high res but it cannot be used for commercial purposes to my knowledge.
    Hope this helps.

  10. Stace

    14 December

    Hi Claire,

    Thanks for coming back, looks like I’ll be popping down to see what they’ve got. I fancy a few of these for a wall at home!!

  11. Colin Stevens

    2 August

    Hi Tina

    What was your Mum’s name in the 1950’s? I was a frequent weekend visitor from 1954 -1961, coming down from Essex, and I was one of those heavily into dance skating. I would probably have known her.
    Such happy memories.
    Best Wishes,
    Colin Stevens

  12. Kevin Eggleton

    14 April

    Hi all, This is amazing . My mum and dad were pro skaters at Southsea in the 50s. My mum was one of the leads in the Skaterkades and I have some of the old programmes from the shows they did. My mum was Phyllis Eggleton and my dad was Norman Eggleton. I first took to the rink at the tender age of ten months. I skated on my own at just over one year and my first pair of boots, (made by my dad) were on display in the glass show case at the rink. This was in 54. For many years my dad held the speed skating record for the circuit and he played Roller Hockey there too.
    Any one with pics or memories of the rink in those days please get in touch.

  13. David Gill

    23 November

    Hello Strong Island and people of Portsmouth and Southsea.
    My name is David Gill and I was the manager of Southsea Roller Skating Rink from 1976 to 1978. Although I was there for the changeover of half of the roller skating rink to a skateboard facility in 1978, a new management team still under the auspices of Portsmouth City Council took it on. I really wanted to say a few words about the roller skating rink though I much admired the huge buzz that was created by the new skateboarding facilities in 1978 and it was great that so many young people in the Portsmouth area had such a fantastic skateboarding centre provided for them. People came from London and all over the south coast to have a go and it created a lot of interest at the time.
    The roller skating rink up until that development change was, so I was informed, the largest outdoor roller skating rink in Europe. It had a fantastic post war history of providing all forms of roller skating, particularly speed, dance and roller hockey. It was for decades a hugely popular leisure location and activity for both residents and visitors. For many years, the roller dance was the most popular and well organised activity on the site and some of the roller skating shows in the 1950s and 1960s were the talk of the town and regularly attracted good crowds. The roller dance section produced many national champions. During my time a lady I think called Betsy, and her family ….very successful in their time…still ran the roller dance although it had gradually declined in popularity. However, the Southsea Rolller Hockey Club had by then taken over the mantle of the most successful roller skating club, thanks to the leadership of Geoff Witte. The club produced many Great Britain internationals and Southsea went on to eventually become the leading roller hockey club in the country throughout the 1980s. I joined the roller hockey club myself in 1976 though I certainly wasn’t one of the leading players! However, I did play for the first team, the Rangers, on the odd occasion and even went to play in two tournaments in Europe with them. The club organised club tours to an international event in Guernsey every year during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Southsea was a unique destination for all the best roller hockey clubs because they still played outdoors……all the big clubs by this time played indoors……and the home and away teams had to put up with whatever the weather had in store for them!
    Working at the roller skating rink was great fun. It was open every day in the summer but just the weekends in winter. I squeegeed that entire rink on my own….. remember the largest one in Europe!….to clear the rain more times than I care to remember and sometimes, if people we’re queuing outside in the hope of skating, I’d give them a squeegee to help me and I’d give them free admission. We could only open if it was dry. Sometimes, we’d clear the rink of rainwater, get ready to open, and then it would rain again……soul destroying!
    The bandstand was the iconic feature of the rink, as well as it’s location on the seafront. I still remember playing over the PA system a staple diet of the Beach Boys and Meat Loaf to give the skating more atmosphere.
    The roller skating rink in its full force was a unique and special part of Southsea’s history and perhaps you would keep this small note of my recollections for the archives?
    However, times change and we need to adapt to them. I’m delighted to see that the ‘skatepark’ is still going strong and I wish it every success for the future and hope it continues to serve the people of Portsmouth and Southsea in the future as well as it has in the past.
    David Gill

  14. Paul Gonella

    26 November

    Thank you so much for your memories of the rink David! We want to work on a short film in 2014 about the skatepark, and would really like to get in touch to find out more.

  15. Ray O'Hanlon

    26 January

    My brother, sister and I used to holiday in Southsea in the 70’s.Im 51 now. We would spend all day, every day on the beach and after tea we’d go up to the roller rink. We were always there with great friends from London and many a night we nearly took over the rink. Some of the happiest times in my life were spent there. I would love to see some old pics from around that time. Only last month my brother went back there and spread some of our late mothers ashes on the beach. We loved it there.
    Ray (Dublin)

  16. Paul Gonella

    27 January

    Hi Ray, Thank you so much for taking the time to share your memories of the skatepark. We are actually working with the skatepark to secure funding for a project collecting people’s memories of the place all through its history. If it was okay could I email you if the project goes through about recording some of your memories of Southsea Skatepark?

  17. Margaret Rogers

    26 May

    Dose anybody remember Roger Squibb and Judith Wright

  18. Katie Howard

    24 August

    Hello everyone. I came across this website as I am trying to find information and photos of my Nan ,who use to roller skate in the shows. My Nans name was Patricia Elverson. I believe that she did this in the late 1940s or possibly early 1950s but i am not entirely sure. If anyone could help that would be amazing!!! 🙂

  19. Paul Gonella

    19 September

    Hi Katie, We don’t have info but thanks for commenting, hopefully someone will see your comment and get in touch. All the best.

  20. Jan Norsworthy

    14 July

    My beloved late mum was called Thelma Forehead. She used to skate and dance at the Southsea roller rink I would think from circa 1947. Does anyone know of her or have any photos please?

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