London’s Black roller skaters taking TikTok by storm - where are the city’s best spots?

The roller-skating community is “soaring” with videos from London gaining millions of views on social media.

Brianna Neville (@Brisk8es) has more than 37,000 followers on TikTok and regularly posts roller-skating videos from around the city.

She told LondonWorld the activity has gained in popularity since she started.

“It has soared completely, and I think it is to do with a lot of older skaters taking social media seriously… and they all started posting, and I started posting,” she said.

#blackpeopleskatinginlondonseries

“I started putting out videos helping people, ‘where to get skates in London’ and I kind of created a little community where everyone can help each other, and it has just taken off,” said Brianna.

She created #blackpeopleskatinginlondonseries which has more than 36 million views on TikTok.

Brianna says: “If we dive into the London scene, it is definitely influenced by Black people.”

She continued: “I created the hashtag to spread awareness of the impact Black people have had on roller skating…I wanted to create awareness of the history of Bauer roller skates and everything that we do in London, rather than just roller-skating as a whole.”

Brianna says London roller skaters are known for using Bauer skates, which originate from ice hockey.

“A lot of people from Spain, Italy, and especially America would comment [on videos]: ‘What skates are those?’” she said.

#rollerskatinglondon

Another hashtag, #rollerskatinglondon, with more than 1.6m views on TikTok. Stephanie Sonuga (@beingstefs) says she was inspired by social media to start skating in London. She has grown her TikTok following to more than 31k.

Stephanie began skating in January, and said: “I came across some TikTok videos of people skating in London and I found it really cool … that’s the reason why I started skating and it really made me buy a pair of skates and start skating seriously.”

Stephanie recommends Bethnal Green basketball court, saying: “Even though the ground is kind of slanted, I would say it’s a really good spot to skate. It’s in a park, a lot of skaters go there to skate, there’s a lot of space. In that location I feel a lot safer compared to skating in car parks”.

This summer, Stephanie began going to events to meet other roller skaters.

“I’ve seen some people starting maybe from the age of 16, and then older people I’ve seen maybe around 50 or so. I feel it appeals to a wide age range.”

Her advice for anyone interested in joining the London roller-skating scene? “Take it easy and go slow, go at your own pace, don’t try to rush it, make sure you enjoy it and take your time.

“It’s even more fun when you meet other skaters and have fun together.”

Brianna Neville’s (@Brisk8es) top London roller-skating spots

• Rollernation in Tottenham - a retro style roller rink.
• Flippers Roller Boogie Palace in White City - originally from New York, the company opened the London roller rink in November last year.
• Sk8 City London - a roller-skating disco in Harrow Leisure Centre.
• Riverside - North Greenwich.

“To be honest, the London roller-skating scene kind of originated from outdoors so not a lot of us will go indoors, especially during the summer but I think now it’s wintertime, people will start to go back to indoors venues like Rollernation and Flippers,” said Brianna.