// Vans launches a series of free skateboarding events this September
// The skate park will offer free lessons, professional demonstrations & open public sessions for skaters of all levels
As an added consumer incentive to visit London next month Vans is launching a two-week series of free skateboarding events called Skate the Strand.
The events which will take place between September 8-24 have been made in collaboration with Westminster City Council and Somerset House and will highlight a newly pedestrianised public space between Temple and Charing Cross.
The highlight will be Vans’ purpose-built pop-up skate park erected on the Strand at Aldwych.
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The event coincides with the local council’s ‘Inside Out Festival’ to bring art, entertainment and culture to the streets of Westminster, and Somerset House’s ‘No Comply: Skate Culture and Community’ exhibition.
The skate park will offer free lessons, professional demonstrations and open public sessions for skaters of any level.
Councillor Matthew Green said: “This month we saw a once busy and polluted stretch of the Strand transformed into a brand new pedestrianised area for Westminster’s communities and visitors.
“We have an exciting calendar of activity happening over the coming months as part of the Inside Out festival. This fits into our wider plans to encourage visitors back into Westminster as part of our vision for the safe and successful reopening of our city, as well as our longer-term vision for the Strand Aldwych area.”
The development comes as the council introduces new features in a bid to tempt both domestic and foreign visitors back to Central London after footfall was hammered by the pandemic. They include the much-maligned mound at Marble Arch.
A skate zone is likely to prove more popular as skate locations are a big draw for both brands and retail with Selfridges opening an in-store skate bowl in 2018.
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