Community, support and the purest of joy, Brixton’s Baddest is a home away from home." The Basement goes inside the UK's first women-run skate shop.
Taken from Issue 04 of The Basement. Get your copy here.
It’s a hazy spring afternoon and sunlight beams through the windows of Brixton’s Baddest Skateshop, colouring the homely interior with honeyed light. Nearly every surface is covered with stickers, and the walls are hidden under cult film posters and tear outs from 90s magazines. Perched on the DIY-looking furniture and well-worn sofa are a handful of women, talking animatedly whilst soaking up the sun. Such is a typical sight at the infamous South London establishment.
Nestled on a busy road three minutes walk from Stockwell Skatepark, Baddest has become a defining part of the local area’s identity. Opened by Daphne Greca and Valentine Katz in 2015, their reasoning was simple: “There were no skate shops in South London,” explains Daphne. She humbly downplays her business acumen as “naïvety”, but that wasn’t the only thing that set Baddest apart. It’s inception marked the country’s first ever woman-owned skate shop.
It’s quite the feat, especially considering back in 2015 there was no collective space for those outside of the cis-het skate community. Despite skating having a reputation of being alternative and progressive, it was nearly exclusively a boys club. Resultantly, the sport and surrounding culture suffered from the inflections of toxic masculinity and an exclusionary misogynistic mindset. “When I went to buy my first skateboard, I knew I got ripped off. I was happy I had a board but it wasn’t the best experience,” Daphne tells me.
Community member Helena Long, who is described by the others as the OG UK female skater, echoes this sentiment. “Skate shops notoriously don’t make any money, but they still didn’t want to sell to a teenage girl. I was like, ‘Do you want to make a sale or not?’”
The skate scene then was a far cry from where it is today. The Baddest girls bemoan that they were able to count the number of female pro-skaters on one hand when the shop opened. Skating was seen as a male-centric sport; if you weren’t a guy, then you were a Female Skater with a capital F.
It’s something the team has always rallied against. “You walked in today and it’s four girls sitting around here. That wasn’t planned,” Daphne points out. The girls in question – Cece, Aimée and Helena – are a part of the core crew of Brixton’s Baddest, and have become a staple of the space as it’s evolved into a cultural community hub. A space that has deeply resonated with and grown alongside the global skate scene – not only for women but people from all walks of life.
“People have these cliques and you need to follow what they say is cool to be let into that clique,” Daphne explains, making her stance on intersectionality clear: “I spit on that! I believe in people creating their own thing instead of trying to fit in in order to be picked by who is the coolest.”
This welcoming energy radiates throughout the space. Throughout the conversation we are interrupted by people coming from the skatepark to pick up magazines, get new wheels, replace a broken board or just say hey. Cece credits this to the mellow openness of the shop. “To get into skating can be quite daunting. We take time to explain how building a skateboard works or to make a newer skater feel like they can ask anything or come back to the shop whenever.”
It’s something musician Aimée Gillingwater can attest to, having come to Brixton’s Baddest since her teens. “I didn’t have many friends at school. The girls from the shop became my family. They’re hardcore and they’re respected,” she says, adding that: “Daphne and Stef showed me that I can embrace being girly and being a skater, they made me feel comfortable in my femininity. I would not be the woman I am today without these girls.”
However Cece emphasises that this goes both ways: “For boys coming into the shop, it gives them a different perspective on skate culture. Valentine is your favourite skater’s favourite skater and he is always surrounded by women. Daphne and Val, as a duo, are really good role models for the new generation.”
Another important focus for Baddest is mental health, which intersects with all aspects of the space. “For some of the kids coming to skate, if they have shit going on, that is the hour or so that they can just escape it,” Cece tells me, going on to add that, simply, “When you’re skating you can’t think of anything else apart from being present in your body.” Daphne, who is currently finishing her Master’s in Neuroscience and Psychology and volunteers at the local Mental Health hospital, adds that aside from forming a much-needed third space in a city that is being decimated by a lack of community funding, skating is a sport about both your wins and your losses. “When you fail to get a trick and fall over, that is celebrated as much as when you land it. We all sit here and bond over our stories of failing.”
The conversation turns to how skating is intertwined with wider culture, including music, fashion and art, especially in a place like London where many of the city’s leading creatives started out in the skate scene. “That’s why it’s so important from a shop perspective to be able to support skaters beyond just skating. It’s rare to meet a skater who doesn’t have another creative outlet,” Cece explains. “We want to help people explore the arts without so much financial pressure and risk. You also can’t skate year round, so giving our community other creative outlets and a platform is our goal.”
Turns out, the feeling is mutual. When the team shared they were facing closure back in July their community rallied around them. Like many small businesses in the UK the uncertainties of Brexit, COVID-19 lockdowns and today’s cost of living crisis had made it near-impossible to keep running an IRL store. Distraught by this news, donations immediately started rolling in through their extended network.
“The support from the local and wider skateboard community so far has been overwhelming which has given new belief to everyone who works here,” says Val, who adds that: “We aim to continue their work to give back the love and support that the community has shown for as long as possible.”
As we wrap up our day together, the girls scramble to compliment each other for the record, including Baddest regulars Savannah, Stef, Zuleha and Maz, who couldn’t make it down for that day. “They’re inspiring to me as hell,” Cece says, while Daphne chimes in with admiration: “They are all so talented.” Hearing them passionately fangirl over each other, there’s a sense of genuine care and support that is rare to find. When we pop out for a cig, Aimée sums it up perfectly. “Everyone is embraced for being who they are here. They will have your back if anyone wrongs you. No one takes shit.”
Words by Bee Beardsworth
Photography by Valentine Katz
