One of the most loved Chelmsford street spots, the AP college in the centre of town, is set for imminent demolition. The spot was a mix of stairs, little banks, benches, walls, a brick handrail and for many years a perfect ledge. At it’s heyday in the late 80s and early to mid 90s it was heavily skated all week and didn’t have security so was bust free but things began to change with the ledge getting skate stopped, then the front stairs made un-skatable and finally the security office being located right by the main bank…after that it became a constant bust. Even though not properly skated in a long while the spot still has a fond memories for everyone.
Tucked away on the old MN archive tapes are hours of footage filmed at ‘the collage’ so for a quick memorial edit we put together some skating from just three sessions from early 1993. Below the edit are some photos of the college spot taken the other day, now fenced off ready for the bulldozers to move in on a classic Chelmsford street spot (just like they did with the bus station). RIP.
OG MN heads (at these particular sessions) in order of appearance: Chris Plumber, Jacob Davidson, Aaron Norman, Matt Letch, Paul Gonella, Adam Whitaker, Pete Harrison, Jim Rands, James O’Grady, Barry Ewers, Adam Leeds and Kevin Peacock. When we finally do the ‘We Are’ DVD boxset expect a mountain of footage from the college from everyone!
Long time Sudbury and Colchester legend Channon King will be making an appearance in Never Forever. Russ filmed this footage at the Colchester loading bays back in 1996 and it’s not seen the light of day until now. Expect some sick new footage in the upcoming vid…
Russ and some of the friday crew have been heavily hitting up Southend of late, here’s a clip from the Lately tapes vault from 2002 featuring Russ on the other side of the camera for a change. Lbd taking the filming and hat loan duties…
We flexed our cat burglar skills back on 28th November 2004 for a final skate before the derelict Chelmsford bus station main building was due for demolition. A major Chelmsford skate spot for well over a decade, its painted curbs, stairs, little driveway and most of all its benches are still missed. Digging in the old ‘Lately’ tapes we found this footage of LBD skating the previously insta-bust dirty maintenance ledge as a fond fairwell. not long after in early 2005 the building was flattened. Today its an almost finished new bus station and swanky flats. Those black marble ledges out front are so so close to being a good spot too but just not quite there!
Can you believe it was two years ago to the day we premiered our cine magnus opus “Lately” Anyone that did attend that fateful night were true to the cause as it had been snowing all that day. Anyway “Lately” has a special place in our hearts here at MN hq, so much has happened since that video and to celebrate its second birthday you can now watch Lately in all its full glory in our videography section. “Roll them pigeons!”
Digging in the Dixon vaults uncovered this gem, the East Anglia section from Dave’s second video ‘From the Inside Looking Out’ from 1999. The video has some sick footage from Sandy, Dave, Channon King, Franklin Stephens, etc…
What with the ‘We Are’ boxset gaining momentum we came across this raw footage of Adam Whitaker going to work on the civic stairs back in 1995. All filmed in a few minutes….ruler
As a Christmas present we’ve uploaded the rare Monster Network video ‘Essex Tour 2001 (It Came From the South)’! Back in the summer of 2001, thanks to LBD’s planning, friends and OG Monsters came together for a 4 day tour around Essex and a little bit of Suffolk. It was weather stricken and boozy but it was also one of the best times bringing a large group of friends back together to skate, drink and goof off. Raise a drink this Christmas to skateboarding and friendship and to the English summer!
