House of VANS Skatepark

Opened in the Summer of 2014 The House of VANS is the second of its kind after the success of the original opening in Brooklyn, NYC. Not only does it play host to London’s first and only indoor skatepark but laid out over five previously disused train tunnels are an art gallery, cinema, live music venue and a premium cafes & bars. The idea behind this 33,000 square foot indoor space is to fuel creative expression and engage with the local community with the Vans ‘Off The Wall’ spirit, and in tunnels 4 & 5 lie the designated skate areas.

Tunnel 4 is predominantly bowl oriented featuring a long, silky smooth concrete bowl with varying depths and shapes, there are also two vert extensions with pool coping along some edges to give it that old skool california vibe that Vans is world renowned for.

Adjacent to this is Tunnel 5 which is slightly shorter than 4 but features a fairly basic but well laid out street section featuring a ledge, hips & banks, a mini ramp and a quarter pipe with a vert extension. One interesting feature here is the ‘wavey’ bank which instead of being flat has an undulating top. In line with this street section is a series of mini ramps lining the edges of the tunnel to form a small half pipe.

The House of VANS is a really cool new spot in London and sessions are split into 2 hour blocks allowing up to 66 users at a time. You could easily spend a few sessions here learning the lines, but watch out on rainy days as it gets very busy.