London’s Roller-skating Revolution

_{Roller-skating at Flippers Roller Boogie Palace (Credit: Manvi Dixit)}

It’s a Saturday night. Simi and Janet are looking for somewhere with ‘good vibes’ to celebrate their friend’s birthday. They rock up at Flippers Roller Boogie Palace after pre-drinks and it fulfils all their requirements for a night out. All they need to do is to bring a pair of skates. Flippers hosted DJ Carl Cox earlier this week.

“The skaters here are easy-going even if you can’t skate properly. To be honest, across the entire community, everyone’s friendly,” says amateur skater Simi, explaining that this is her third visit to the venue.

Flippers, discreetly sitting parallel to Westfield White City, is the recently established mecca for London’s emerging skate community. Opened in November 2022 and christened by Usher during its launch, Flippers has been labelled the ‘Studio 54 on wheels.’ With live music events, American diner style food and flashing neon lights – the roller rink has played a significant role in the resurgence of roller-skating and what it means for young skaters today.

Christabelle, 20, a skating marshall who has worked at Flippers since its opening, explains the appeal of merging the skating and clubbing scenes.

“People my age, they like to have fun, go out and listen to music. It gives you the confidence to skate without worrying about falling over. Skaters like their music, especially my group, coming here and dancing – learning new moves is so much fun.”

Her work at Flippers gives her a chance to do what she loves all the time – roller-skating. She describes her journey with skating as “life-altering.” During a period of aimlessness and fears of going down the wrong path after sixth form, Christabelle cites her decision to pick up skating as the reason she didn’t stray.

“If I wasn’t skating now, I don’t know what I would be doing. Once I started to weigh up how inclusive and kind the community (based in North Greenwich) is versus my so-called friends, I knew I needed to stay.”

She uses her TikTok to share her skating journey and promote Flippers events. Through her online presence, she’s able to network with other young skaters and is grounded in a desire to help other teenagers who might be in the same position as she was.

As a young skater who indulges in the hobby as a stress-reliever, Isabelle N, 24, has found street skating to be the most therapeutic option for when she has had a rough day. Isabelle is part of a skate team called ‘Wavy on 8’, a London-based group that performs choreographed dance routines on skates and hosts events.

Their aim is to inspire other young people to hone their skills. Isabelle was previously a Taekwondo athlete and grew up doing kickboxing but has found solace through skating. She deems it a “healthy distraction” and finds it a peaceful space for dealing with anxiety.

“As we enter adulthood, we stop getting in touch with our creative side and our inner child,” she says.

The Jo Cox Foundation’s annual research continues to find that young people are still the loneliest age group in the UK, with 60 per cent of young respondents reporting that they are unable to afford their usual leisure activities due to the cost-of-living crisis.

A recent YouGov poll also found that 10 per cent of adults in Britain, equal to 5.1 million people, have cancelled their gym or other exercise membership, or are considering it. It found that young adults were the biggest group cancelling their memberships.

Roller-skating’s strong community values and affordability can help provide a solution for both these problems.

Lena Holmes, 25, has been skating on and off for the last eight years, and found “her people” at the height of the pandemic two years ago when interest in skating was surging. She created her own community in 2022 called ‘NB8, SK8 LDN.’

Initially, this was just to document her experiences and meet fellow skaters. But along with her partner, she is now focused on inspiring new young skaters by organising bi-monthly events for beginners and group meet-ups at London rinks. Holmes’ TikTok and Instagram accounts share tutorials and promote street skates.

“I remember what it was like for me to go to my first skating event and it was a lot to take in so I can only imagine what it would be like for someone with no experience,” she says.

“I wanted to make a safe space for them…for it to be as enjoyable and welcoming as possible.”

Chop and shuffle (backwards skating), jam (dancing on skates) and speed skating are only some of the variations of standard roller-skating. London skaters have also claimed their own move, ‘the London Way’, which is a backwards shuffle. Whichever moves they choose depends on what the skater wants to get from the activity and what suits their creative expression at the time. But they can be assured of one thing, they’ll get some exercise in the process.

“I didn’t realise how much of a workout it could be till I tried jam-skating,” says Holmes.