Roller-skaters vs QR codes: the battle for Bethnal Green

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The padel court appeared seemingly overnight, as ominous and imposing as the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Rising slap bang in the middle of Bethnal Green’s beloved roller-skating park, it’s a fortress of thick black fencing — and, guarded by a QR code, a slightly on-the-nose embodiment of enclosed public space. “When I first saw it, I felt…,” veteran roller-skater Ishariah Johnson pauses for the right word, “flabbergasted.”

She wasn’t the only one. Since the court’s construction in March, it’s become all anybody in the neighbourhood can talk about — whether in sleek coffee shops or grimy boozers or on benches in the park. When, on a Thursday evening, I speak to a woman casually strolling through the park, she sums it up succinctly: “people are pissed off.” 

The saga has even prompted a community campaign, Save Our Space, which has brought together groups like Black Lives Matter UK and United Voices of the World to fight back against the court. But what, exactly, is actually going on? And why on earth is a quiet racket sport proving so controversial?

Welcome to the party

When I head down to the park on a Sunday in mid-April to find out, I discover that Save Our Space has staged an event to protest the padel court, featuring banner-making, skating and a DJ. They’re playing D’Angelo when I arrive, followed by a string of hip-hop and R&B classics. It feels more like a block party than a protest, helped by the fact it’s the sunniest day of the year so far. A few dozen skaters glide in front of the glass box of the padel court, which is full of baseball-cap-wearing players rhythmically thwacking balls back and forth and ignoring the commotion outside. 

The skaters I meet are a mix of ages: the youngest, about five years old, is there today with her parents and brother (all skating together, all wearing matching coloured tracksuits), while one slightly older girl whizzes around as elegantly as any of the seasoned pros. I don’t see anyone nearing retirement age this afternoon, but I’m told that they have people as old as 70 showing up to skate. 

For those unable, or unwilling to take part, I can confirm that roller-skating is a highly entertaining spectator sport. There’s a mixture of skill levels: some people are skating with Olympian prowess, others are moving more timidly, armoured in elbow, knee and shin pads, and lots of people are somewhere in the middle. Even if you just happen to be strolling past — as I often do myself, living nearby — it feels, for want of a better word, vibey.

For many members of the skating community, the appearance of the court at Bethnal Green felt like a deliberate affront. “If there was a consultation period beforehand, then why have tens of thousands of people expressed their sentiment against it now?” says Lillie Almond, a skater and presenter who runs Skate Storiez, a show where she documents different scenes around the world and interviews their participants. She is firm and emphatic, and a little sceptical of journalists, at least to begin with. 

What started off as a neighbourhood issue has now become a citywide debate. On Reddit threads, Facebook groups and the comments below related articles, Londoners are mostly sympathetic — aside from a handful of grumbling complaints which accuse them of smoking weed and blasting loud music (and in one memorable comment, “harassing children and parents with their aggressive skating”, which makes the park sound like a gritty reboot of Starlight Express). But these sentiments are outliers. “It brings me joy any time I walk by and see a huge community of all ages having fun and doing cool shit,” reads one comment.