Parkour – pah!

by Michael Sturgess

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After walking around the Southbank in London I’d have to say that the kids of today are soft-boiled.
Long before claiming that jumping and almost landing on something or almost jumping over something (whilst wearing protective padding, skinny jeans and comb-over haircuts) is a cool new urban sport, my friend Matt and I took part in “Walk home whilst still a little drunk in the early hours, after spending the night drinking £1 pints of beer at the Students’ Union bar. Followed by a “breakfast” of one sausage in a roll, one bacon roll, one sausage roll, one apple turnover and a cup of coffee. . . And then go and jump over a bench.”
This was not a game or a sport, it was just a way of life for us.
And don’t get me started on the skateboarders at the Southbank. Shameful.

All text and images © Michael Sturgess 2013. All Rights Reserved.

Matt, Barbican Centre, London. Circa 1997.