Palace unites with Nike to create a transformable London hub for skateboarding and sport: ‘we want to give back’

Palace co-founders Lev Tanju and Gareth Skewis spent much of their formative years in the concrete underbelly of the Norman Engleback-designed Southbank Centre, where an assemblage of concrete ramps, ledges and stairs has become the spiritual home of British skateboarding. ‘I spent so many years there,’ Tanju previously told Wallpaper* of the impromptu skatepark, which was saved from redevelopment by the 2013 Long Live Southbank campaign. ‘I met so many people there – Palace wouldn’t exist without Southbank.’

It is in this spirit that Tanju and Skewis embark on their most ambitious project yet: a collaboration with sportswear behemoth Nike on a multi-use London hub, which the pair hope will conjure the same energy of communal gathering as the Southbank once did for them. ‘We had an idea of creating a large space for the community that would be about skateboarding and sport, and a space you could generally hang out in,’ says Tanju of Manor Place, named after the south London street on which it sits. ‘We want [it] to be something positive for London – a city that has given us so much – and we’re really excited to give something back.’

Inside Palace and Nike’s new community hub, Manor Place

The pair are no stranger to collaboration: Palace, which was founded as a skatewear label in 2009, has been defined by an eclectic roster of creative partnerships, spanning everything from Polo Ralph Lauren, Arc’teryx and Crocs to Stella Artois, Gucci, even Wedgwood (in true irreverent style, they created a fine bone-china tea set emblazoned with the Palace logo, polka dots, and bright red strawberries). These collaborations are a reflection of their own idiosyncratic approach to dressing and collecting. ‘I’m always looking for something weird,’ Tanju, who is also Palace’s creative director, told Wallpaper* in 2024. ‘I think as long as I follow what I like, then I’m never really worried, because that’s the way I’ve always worked, following my intuition.’

Nike, though, was the holy grail of collaboration for the pair. ‘Dreams can come true,’ they posted on Instagram last week when they teased the partnership, which alongside the Manor Place project includes a capsule collection that riffs on classic footballing attire, including a play on Nike’s T90 trainers (Palace’s version, which intertwines the brand’s own Fergus Purcell-designed Tri-Ferg symbol and the Nike Swoosh, is aptly named the ‘P90’). Alongside skateboarding, football is another source of nostalgia for Skewis and Tanju: the latter’s father was a semi-professional footballer back in Turkey, and matches were always on TV in his South London home. An accompanying campaign, released today, sees the collection worn by Wayne Rooney alongside skateboarder Guy Mariano and rapper Giggs.

Though it is Manor Place which is at the centre of the collaboration: built in 1895 as a swimming bath, the building would later become synonymous with boxing, holding its first fight in 1908 and later becoming a hangout for the likes of the Kray twins (Tanju’s grandfather was also a regular at the boxing gym). Falling into disrepair, the major architectural project undertaken by Palace and Nike sees the main room cleverly reimagined as a skatepark-cum-football pitch, the latter revealed by a floor which rises to the ceiling in a Transformers-like act of theatrics. The two zones are called  ‘The Park’ and ‘The Cage’ respectively, the former featuring ramps, ledges and benches evocative of London skate spots Southbank, Stockwell and the now destroyed Victoria benches, while the latter will host three-on-three football leagues and local competitions.

Elsewhere, ‘The Residency’ will offer studio spaces for emerging creatives in a series of nine-month residencies, while ‘The Front Room’ will be a rolling exhibition space, largely dedicated to the residents' work (it will also serve as a retail space, as well as hosting a program of talks, events and screenings). ‘Lev and I wanted to try and create something new, something that’s really community-based. That’s a word that is often bandied about without any real meaning behind it,’ says Skewis. ‘I want Manor Place to be somewhere safe and friendly where people can skate, play football and discover new things – all just down the road from where Palace was founded.

The space was conceived alongside London-based design studio JAM, founded by Dan Waterstone, formerly of Sergison Bates Architects, alongside Joe Halligan and Adam Willis, who are co-founders of the Turner Prize-winning Assemble. ‘This was our first collaboration with either of the brands,’ Halligan tells Wallpaper*. ‘Palace had recently taken on the building, and together with Nike developed a vision for what it could become. They were looking for an architect to help them interpret and realise this. We were drawn to the brief straight away, and the chance to rework a civic structure and return it to public use – particularly one in London. The programme was remarkable: a fully funded public project, free to use, that genuinely gives something back to the community. It felt like everyone involved was invested in making that happen.’

Their approach to the heritage building, which is listed, was ‘inventive rather than cautious’, he says, embracing much of the existing architecture – from tiled walls and patinated concrete floors, to more recent air conditioning systems which are left exposed. Small details interplay the building’s various eras: stained-glass lanterns on the front of the building are playfully reworked to integrate the ‘Palace P’ while a mosaic floor at the entranceway features the Nike swoosh. ‘They are things that twist heritage slightly, making it part of something new,’ says Halligan.

At the centre of the project was this idea of transformation: ‘that a skatepark becomes an underground football pitch was wild but also fundamental,’ he continues. ‘Similarly, The Residency studios have a direct relationship to the Front Room project space – work is made in one and then shown in the other. We liked that sense of movement and adaptability, that things shift from one thing to another. Historically, the building was where people came to wash, swim or meet friends, and it’s important that, despite the functions shifting, the building still provides that active social role.’

33 Manor Place, London SE17 3BD will open this evening (31 October 2025) for a preview party, before opening to the public on November 11, 2025.

The P90 collection will be available globally today at palaceskateboards.com and Palace stores. P90 footwear will also be available via SNKRS in selected locations.