....for one thing it unleashes desire" (Lefebvre, 1974). In this case the desire to skate Grey's Monument in the centre of Newcastle. For however briefly the monument is a skate spot, and, for that time, the most constructive use of this urban space. In 2002 Philadelphia's City council tried to deter skaters from the long-treasured Love Park spot in their city centre, only to face a wave of protest and realise that the skaters were " the shock troops of gentrification" , as a writer called Ocean Howell put it. The skaters "breathed life" into that city plaza. £160 million has been spent restoring Newcastle's Grainger Town; gentrification of buildings yes, but maybe the fleeting presence of skaters at the Monument hints at other possibilities, not just bricks and mortar. Earl Grey might look down approvinlgy
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