Keys To The City — The Making of Palace’s ‘DETROIT 313’ with Lev Tanju

🔑 Story and Art Direction by Farran Golding
📷 Photography by Alex Pires and Polaroids (background images throughout) by Jack Brooks, originally published in the PALACE DETROIT 313 Photo Book

In the summer of 2026, an exhibition on the history of skateboarding at London’s Southbank Undercroft took place in a subterranean venue next to the world-renowned spot. In this corner beneath the Queen Elizabeth Hall, which was once part of the Undercroft itself, short films from communities connected to Southbank’s past and present played on loop. They were directed by and featured skateboarders the spot had incubated: the professionals whose careers it has been intrinsic to, the filmmakers whose archives present an ethnography of the area, the 100-strong crew of skate moms who meet regularly, and an atmospheric work by Lev Tanju, the founder and creative director of a generational entity born out of the brutalist landmark: Palace Skateboards.

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The LCBO’s On Strike

“Running a business is hard work. Running a business that feels personally and creatively fulfilling is even harder. Kudos to them for not riding Alltimers into the ground, a soulless, empty thing, because that’s easy. And hey, 11 years is nothing to sneeze at. A good run is one where the people in charge know when to stop. If you run forever, you lose the chance to look back and appreciate where you’ve been and why you were running in the first place.” Simple Magic on Alltimers shutting up shop after an eleven-year run 🍸 (All of the boards are sold out, but there are some soft goods left over on the Alltimers going out of business sale if you wanted to grab a keepsake.)

“I’ve had a few ABDs in video parts that I battled and had no idea. One of them was Mark Suciu so I was like fuck it, I’ll use it.” Jenkem spoke to Matt Militano about his journey through sponsorships, the Foundation van, ABDs, and prank shows.

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Kicked Out of the Bar By the Swedish Military

Lucien Clarke in the Financial District by Mike Heikkila 📷 for 2001 Mag

We have our first one-spot video of 2024! Kurt Havens filmed a video entirely at the Abraham Lincoln statue in Prospect Park to show the world how much joy and creativity could be extracted from an innocuous patch of smooth stone in the middle of a big, green park. It has been added to the QS One-Spot Part Map 📍🐢

“The ConEd Banks sit quietly near the entrance to a mysterious 300-acre parcel of land that has been a site of energy, pollution, and controversy for over 100 years.” Village Psychic wrote the history of the ConEd Banks, which has a strong crossover with the New York hardcore scene of the 1980s. (Before anyone asks, yes we have looked into doing a “Favorite Spot” with Zered about it, but the consensus seemed to be that the footy was too scattered.)

Paris De Noche is the new video from Naquan Rollings filmed in New York, Philly and Paris, with standout clips from Jahmir Brown and Carl Aikens.

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Favorite Spot With Lucien Clarke on Victoria Benches

Although good ledge spots are hardly synonymous with British skateboarding, it’s a surprising reality that they were missing from even the country’s capital until the turn of the millennium. Such was the landscape of London until, in the late 1990s, heaven was discovered in an unassuming patch of greenery just down the road from Victoria Station. Jacob Sawyer’s wonderful “Ode To Victoria Benches” story for Slam City Skates pinpoints the spot as having been discovered somewhere around 1997. The Blueprint Skateboards team and friends would go on to localize it, with the benches appearing in Waiting For The World, Headcleaner, and First Broadcast.

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