Palace Skateboards

There is a lot going on with Palace Skateboards now. Playing their first headline show in the capital this year, Palace skate gang PWBC(The Palace Wayward Boys Choir) and British photographer Alasdair Mclellan teamed up and had a show last month at the ICA to offer insight into the lives of people associated with the skateboard haven in London Southbank, their community and attitude.

Palace Skateboards was established in 2009 by Levent Tanju of the Palace Wayward Boys Choi with a skate team including Lucien Clarke, Charlie Young, Olly Todd, and Chewy Cannon alongside the artwork direction of Will Bankhead and Fergadellic.

As a fashion photographer at i-D, Alasdair Mclellan, the pioneering youth culture photographer, is one of the industry’s most feted photographic talents. Since 2009, Alasdair Mclellan has been documenting skateboarding lifestyle and getting involved in the Palace scene.

Hot off the back of their ICA exhibition, Palace Skateboards have released a viral commercial starring Jonah Hill for its latest Reebok collar and a photo book made in collaboration with Alasdair Mclellan and published by IDEA.

“When I think about skateboarding pictures I always used to think about America, and then I met Lev and PWBC and they all looked really good, and it was very British, and they all dressed more like they were going to a football match than skating in Waterloo”, photographer Alasdair Mclellan says. This skate gang PWBC and Mclellan came together and helped push the British skate scene forward.