This week until Saturday 6 April from 1 till 6pm, Sutton Ramp Events is playing host to Sutton’s young skaters in Sutton Ramp Events borrowed shop in North Cheam.

We have partnered with London-based Community interest company, Meanwhile Space, who established the 426 London Road ‘You Are Here’ pop-up shop in 2012. This company liaises with landlords to transform vacant retail units into blank canvass premises, available for grass-roots community projects and small businesses to use.

For example, last week in the same shop, one Sutton resident was selling antique and retro furniture. Perhaps next week there will be a start-up businessman selling bespoke urban street wear. But this week, Sutton Ramp Events is privileged to have the use of the space.

It’s no secret that for years our charity has pined after a Sutton indoor space in which to set up our mobile ramps and build new ones. We believe this is something sorely needed in the locale, with the closest indoor skate facility being Skaterham, roughly a 30 minute car journey from Sutton centre. Our ultimate goal is to build from scratch a world-class indoor skatepark in Sutton, complete with an international-competition sized Vert ramp and Street obstacles, plus other extra curricula facilities to serve the community—both parents and young people. Despite numerous promising leads over the years, Sutton Ramp Events is still in the position of not even having a warehouse as a potential solution to this problem.

This week, however, the ‘You Are Here’ Meanwhile Space presented us with our first opportunity to give Sutton skaters a taste of what an—albeit very small—indoor skatepark might be like. We have only had room to set up our mobile mini-ramp, but even after two days and a lot of social media publicity, skaters on holiday from school are starting to find and enjoy this ‘underground’, semi-permanent establishment. Yesterday, skater Tim found us and said, "I swear to God, a mini-ramp in North Cheam: it's the best thing I've ever seen!"

We have use of the shop space for this week only, finishing on Saturday 6 April at 6pm. For all details of the shop’s location and more photos, please visit the event’s page on our website.

In the meantime, if any readers have suggestions of a suitable location where an indoor skatepark might be established in Sutton, or if you would like to donate to this fantastic cause, we would love to hear from you! Please tweet us, or drop us an email.

And if reading this post has given you a burning desire to use the 462 London Road premises for your own community project or small business, please get in touch with the ‘You Are Here’ Project Delivery Manager.