The Skateboard Culture Archive was founded to preserve and celebrate the rich history of UK skateboarding

Our Purpose & Mission

From the 1970s onwards, skateboarding in the UK shaped its own identity, a parallel adaptation of what was happening in California and one based on the country’s climate, terrain and wider youth culture.

The Skateboard Culture Archive will tell the story of the people, places, products and brands who, across six decades, created a unique movement that continues to influence not only new generations of skateboarders, but popular culture and wider society today.

The Skateboard Culture Archive will research, display and preserve physical artefacts alongside a fully searchable digital database of photography and film. Personal collections of hardware, clothing, magazines, photographs and videos/DVDs will be acquired and preserved, with contemporary material added as it is produced.

To tell as complete a story of UK skateboard culture as possible, key individuals will be profiled and interviewed.

The work of the Skateboard Culture Archive is critical

● The preservation of items that were essentially made to be destroyed is time-sensitive.

● Objects are increasingly scattered across the globe without being accounted for. 

● Items risk falling into the hands of individuals—or businesses—with a commercial interest in them as commodities and ultimately being lost to the public.

The sheer number of renowned creatives, artists and musicians who trace their roots back to skateboarding in the UK—and consider those years formative to their future endeavours—exemplifies just how important a movement this is. 

Skateboarding in the UK extends far beyond the act of riding a skateboard: it influences a global audience of skateboarders, designers, filmmakers and photographers. 

From Grayson Perry to Ed Sheeran, skateboarding has inspired and informed generations of British talent, and the reasons for this should be explored, explained and celebrated for generations to come.

CONTACT

CONTACT

The Team

  • Tory Turk - Curator

    Tory Turk is a curator specialising in style and popular culture and the co-founder of HYMAG, the world’s largest magazine collection. She has curated exhibitions at prestigious institutions such as The Fashion Space Gallery, Northampton Museum and the Royal Academy and collaborated with brands like Hennessy, Pentland, and Amazon. Her projects, including No Comply at Somerset House and SKATEBOARD at the Design Museum, explore skateboarding's impact on communities and culture. Tory's work reflects a commitment to cultural storytelling, supported by organisations like the Arts Council and the Korean Cultural Centre (KCCUK). 

  • Winstan Whitter - Film Maker

    Winstan Whitter, a London-based skateboarder and filmmaker, began skateboarding in 1985 and transitioned into filmmaking through the influence of icons like Spike Jonze. As a contributor to Californias 411 Video Magazine in the 1990s, he documented London’s skateboarding scene, culminating in his debut film, Rollin’ Through the Decades. Winstan has contributed to many major skateboarding projects through the years, including the Design Museum’s SKATEBOARD and helped to shift the culture with the Long Live Southbank project. He remains an active filmmaker, showcasing his unique perspective on skateboarding’s cultural evolution.

  • Neil Macdonald - Writer/Archivist

    Neil Macdonald has been writing about skateboarding, music, and culture since 2007, contributing to publications like Thrasher and Sidewalk. He owns a vast archive of over 5,000 pieces of skateboard media and runs the popular Instagram account @scienceversuslife, celebrating 1990s skateboarding style.

    Neil’s forthcoming book, Elsewhere: The Story of UK Skateboarding, 1987–2002, is set to be published by Batsford in September 2025, cementing his role as a key chronicler of skateboarding culture and history.

  • Wig Worland - Photographer

    Wig Worland is a photographer and archivist renowned for documenting skateboarding culture during the 1990s and early 2000s. As the first photo editor of Sidewalk (UK) magazine, Wig shaped its visual identity of the title and simultaneously worked as a senior photographer for Transworld Skateboarding (US). Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, he contributed to many global skateboarding publications before transitioning to commercial photography. Wig continues to shoot skateboarding whilst working on other commercial projects and campaigns, drawing inspiration from his extensive archive for future creative endeavours.

  • Dan Adams - Designer/Archivist

    Discovering skateboarding in the 1970s and inspired by the dynamic images in US skateboard magazines of the period, Dan embarked on a career in graphic design. As a former designer at Read and Destroy (R.A.D) skateboard magazine, Dan now manages the magazine’s photographic legacy, the R.A.D Archive. After exhibitions in London, Berlin and Los Angeles showcasing the creative output of R.A.D, he recently authored: Read and Destroy, Skateboarding through a British Lens ‘78 to ‘95. In 2023 Dan, together with Steve Douglas, Bod Boyle and Don Brown launched London Calling!, an exhibition and event series celebrating the pioneers of British Skateboarding.