Rolling back the years How Scotland fell for roller skating
The TikTok generation has rediscovered roller skating, but they’re simply following in some very well worn tracks ...
IN gowns which skimmed the polished maple wood floor and to the rousing oompah of a brass band, Edwardian ladies and their smart-suited companions rolled in neverending circles around the room on their skates.
Trying to maintain their dignity and dodging wobbly learners in former mills and empty halls cheerfully decorated with Union flags, bunting and Chinese lanterns, they indulged in what was billed “this most healthful and exhilarating” of sports.
It was 1909 and Scots were gripped by a roller-skating frenzy that saw rinks spring up in towns and cities in their dozens, hastily constructed to meet the astonishing demand for four wheels that was sweeping the nation.
For a few years Edwardian Scots were obsessed by a roller revolution – there were competitions to see who could go fastest, do the most impressive tricks, skate the most elegantly and, for up to 1,200 people at a time who crammed onto huge roller rinks in Glasgow and Dundee – and smaller ones in places like Linlithgow, Stranraer and Stirling – there was a chance to socialise on wheels while being entertained with the latest brass band tunes.
Sales on a roll
FOR the TikTok generation with little else to do but head outside, roller skates have been the fashionable way to zip through the pandemic. Never mind the bicycle boom: sales of roller skates have rocketed during lockdown, while Google Trends data reveal soaring searches for roller skating in Scotland and an increase of 200 per cent in people hunting for “roller blades”.
On video site TikTok, the hashtag “rollerskating” has amassed some 280.1 million views of everything from rollerskating tips for beginners to skaters – often opting to wear seventies’ vintage styles – making the most of deserted city streets to show off their skills.
Last month, a new nationwide consortium, The Skate People, launched with a view to shifting roller skating from purely recreational fun to an active travel option by encouraging Scots skaters to use cycle lanes and improved paths for daily commutes and journeys that might otherwise have involved taking the car.
Those embracing today’s roller-skating trend may think they are reviving seventies fashion for four wheels or the 1980s roller disco trend. Instead, the retro craze for wheeled shoes goes back much further and, during that dazzling spell around 1909, engulfed nearly every community in the land. Attempts to replicate ice skating on solid ground started in the 1700s when an unnamed Dutchman attached wooden wheels to his shoes and invented skeelers – the first roller skates.
Mirror ball
BELGIAN inventor John-Joseph Merlin went further in the 1760s with his shoe on wheels which he demonstrated during a masquerade party in London. Keen to impress with his fancy “inline skates”, he skated through a hall while playing the violin, failed to stop and smashed straight into a huge mirror.
In the following decades, roller skating was embraced by the elite of Victorian society, with indoor rinks of imported maple or marble where well-to-do, elegant skaters practised their skills amid potted palms and to the tunes of small orchestras or brass bands.
1,200 people crammed onto huge rinks in Glasgow and Dundee – and smaller ones in Linlithgow, Stranraer and Stirling