Broadmarsh Humps
The Montague Burton Heads
Mogul Mayhem
Why? That's the mystery. Why was a mogul maze of brickwork humps made behind a 70's shopping mall. Was it just an architects whim frustrated at designing a featureless brutalist shrine to consumerism or was he a visionary skater?
Following a rumour about a place behind the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre frequented by skateboarders me and my cousin, Paul, skated through Nottingham one Sunday afternoon in search.
Back in 1976 Nottingham city centre was deserted on Sundays, the only place open was the odd newsagents, you could just casually slalom along all of the streets in a pack without danger of cropping the ankles of pedestrians or being hit by kamakazi buses. Occasionally the police would have a crackdown and a chase would entail but that just added an element of danger. Eventually, after walking down some steep steps from High Pavement we guided our fibreglass Skudas down a paved ramped area… and then down on to the blue brick humps - we had found it!
Some more photos of the demolition of Broadmarsh banks can be found here on the Hooked Skate Blog. The video below is BMX biking but shows the humps in their latter days after the Victorian blue brick viaduct had been replaced by the concrete tram bridge.
Long Live Broadie BanksA Facebook group dedicated to the banks and those who used to skate and bike there.