royal victoria park – Caught in the Crossfire

Photos: Tom Sparey

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Bath’s Royal Victoria Park has been a staple meet up for locals in the area for decades. The vert ramp that once stood tall brought legendary sessions, copious amounts of folklore and also launched a few memorable names too.

The build, funded by North East Somerset Council didn’t hold back when it came to their support of this project. With new design plans coming from locals in a strong user group and the council’s will to go big, they’ve ended up with a reputable park that should serve generation after generation.

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Since it was redeveloped by Canvas Spaces and opened to the public on the 26th September the new concrete has had visitors coming from afar to check it out. Josh Young was pretty much the first to get some footage on the new bowl. Canvas Spaces’ super smooth ‘crete supplied the tools whilst Josh made it look easy.

Veteran ripper Sean Goff also made a trip there from his hometown of Oxford and vowed that it’s “well worth a visit”. A lot of bowls are being built around the UK but “most of it is small though. This is one of the few decent size bowls built this year.” Scroll down for his footage.

A video posted by Josh Young (@manhead) on Sep 25, 2015 at 10:10am PDT

The NPNG crew from Bournemouth laid down this new edit for Danny Bulmer’s lens to give you a good understanding of the hubba, ledge and stair set up near the bowl. Nicky Porter, Tobias Moors, Todd Langdon and Alex Tibble all in the mix with Bulmer too. Have a good look around and plan your trip soon before the winter arrives.

Address: Royal Victoria Park, Park Lane, Bath BA1 3BA. Map here.

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Well played Bath….

First roll at Baths new skatepark…It's well worth a visit.

Posted by Sean Goff on Sunday, October 11, 2015

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Bath’s outdoor skatepark found in Royal Victoria Park has a solid past in skateboarding history. Its transitions were a travel magnet, attracting people from afar to skate its ramp set up back in the day. The likes of Flynn Trotman and Ben Nordberg cut their teeth on those metal structures but that era is long gone, making way for amazing, new concrete parks, and Bath are next on the list to receive a complete refit.

The good folk at Canvas Spaces have sent us their final plans for the new Bath skatepark to exclusively announce today. The construction for this new spot is underway as you read this, backed by Bath and North East Somerset Council who worked with a user group of locals who chipped in what they wanted, and it looks like they chose well.

The main feature is the bowl, a replica of the old vert and midi ramp in terms of transitions and depths (10’+ and 6’) for continuity. It has a rounded end (for those who enjoy rock n’ roll slides) and comes with tight corners and hips that connect to a huge new 16m long midi ramp. Imagine the sessions on that for a second.

There’s also room in the plan for a 3.5ft high mini-ramp that has an adjoining steep bank with a grindable, rounded concrete lip. A free-standing concrete painted curb should provide many slappy sessions that will take you into the flat land area. You will also find a long mellow bank with a ledge, a classic pyramid driveway and hipped jump box and the raised area has a Wembley gap with stair set, hubba’s and a handrail.

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Canvas Spaces have added a couple of nice touches in homage to the previous park, so expect to find some of the old, original coping gracing your trucks. Also, when the excavation of the land was underway, it revealed a bunch of amazing fossils from Bath’s incredible historical past, so these will be used for seating in the existing mound. Perfect for summer chill outs overlooking the sessions that will be going down.

Finally, the area around the large existing tree will remain relatively low level and spacious with a concrete ledge wrapping around the tree area – one side of it hosting round coping.

As the concrete pours over the next 4 months, take in the final designs and await the news of the opening jam in September. The new skatepark can be found in Royal Victoria Park, Park Lane, Bath BA1 3BA. Map here.

Canvas Spaces are also close to finishing the incredible new swimming pool refit, the Campus Pool Project in Bristol. Follow them on FB and Insta for updates on their quality design work and builds.

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