Space Roller

July 30th, 2016

Space Roller is an abandoned rollerskating rink not far from the Arcade Bus Station on the northeastern outskirts of Chiang Mai, Thailand. I dropped in to check it out in January 2016 after reading about it online, possibly here, and was impressed with the scale of the place. It is big, taking up the better part of a city block, with several unfinished add-ons extending into the urban wilderness on either side. Unfortunately there isn’t a lot of credible information about Space Roller in English so this post will consist primarily of photos of what I found in about half an hour of slinking through the shadows.

Oblique view of the entrance to the Space Roller Club — An oblique view of the abandoned Space Roller arcade.

Roller club and restaurant — A distinctive sign over the main entrance to the abandoned roller club.

Inside the arcade: Space Roller Extreme Sports & Techno Games.

Roller club sign — What remains of the roller club sign over the entrance.

Ground floor office at Space Roller, Chiang Mai — Poking around in the ground floor office.

Space Roller Club main floor — The pillars remain; everything else has been stripped out.

Another look at the ticket booth at the roller club — What remains of the former ticket booth on the second floor.

Not long after wandering upstairs to explore the second level a young man wearing headphones jumped the barrier on the far side of the balcony and, evidently without noticing me, disappeared into the main hall. Another explorer, perhaps? Or maybe a squatter? Taking a closer look at my surroundings I realized that much of the building had been colonized by the homeless—but it wasn’t clear to me whether the man I had just seen was living there, working on a project of some kind (there being plenty of graffiti pieces throughout the building), or merely passing through.

A garbage dump in the old roller rink — The area to the left of the main entrance to the roller rink has been filled with garbage.

Crazy cobwebs on a staircase at the Space Roller Club — Crazy cobwebs cover the metal staircase.

A festering pile of garbage in the ruins of an old roller rink in Chiang Mai — A festering pile of trash from the other side.

The main hall at Space Roller — Inside the abandoned roller rink in Chiang Mai.

Without any local language skills or understanding of how squatters might react to my presence I did my best to evade detection as I crept through the dark entrance into the main hall. Here there was a stairway leading up to another second level balcony and an open area leading to the edge of the roller rink itself—a vast space pierced by a divine beam of light.

A ray of light at Space Roller Club, Chiang Mai — A ray of light pierces the shattered rooftop at Space Roller.

Breaking out of a momentary reverie, I heard sounds from upstairs: shoes scuffing the floor, a loud thump as some heavy object was moved into place, and then the buzz and whirr of power tools filled the gloom. It sounded like one or two people were working on something on the balcony overlooking the roller rink. Not having a good sense of the situation I declined to make their acquaintance. The scene was somehow reminiscent of something from my childhood and I wasn’t interested in pressing my luck.

Squatters occupy the left wing of the building — Squatters occupy much of the left wing of the building. Their homes have been covered with sheet metal.

Street art inside the shell of the Space Roller Club — Graffiti on the third floor of an outbuilding at the abandoned roller rink.

Squatters homes inside Space Roller Club — A closer look at the squatters’ homes on the far side of the arcade.

Spray cans and gutted rollerskates. I would imagine the metal was stripped and sold for scrap at some point.

Big Buy, not Bitcoin — I thought this might be a subversive Bitcoin poster, but no, it’s an advertisement for Big Buy.

Symbols of a colonized mind: evidently someone in the abandoned roller rink has little appreciation for the royal family.

Ground study — What might have once been carpeting.

Ornate column detail at the old roller rink in Chiang Mai — Ornate columns on the outside of the building.

Linear transformation — One of the empty outbuildings. Looks like an incomplete construction project.

Brutalism and organic forms — Nature has done its best to colonize these brutal concrete forms.

One last look at concrete paradise — A bare concrete paradise adjacent to the abandoned roller rink.

One last look at the Space Roller Club — One last look at Space Roller from the street. Finding this place is no sweat if you wander around the bus station.

Factual information about Space Roller seems to be in short supply. I have no idea when it first opened, though it seems to be part of a wider trend of kitschy spaced-themed entertainment in Chiang Mai that began sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s. It was already long-abandoned in 2011 when this short video premiered. This post in Thai suggests it has been abandoned for more than a decade. No great catastrophe seems to have led to the roller rink going out of business—it was likely the victim of a faltering economy or changing consumer habits. Beyond that I haven’t any idea what the story might be.

A creepy doll hanging out on the streets of Chiang Mai — Bonus: a creepy doll hanging outside the abandoned roller rink. What could it mean?

For more abandoned places in Chiang Mai have a look at my write-ups about the House of Success and the White Lion House.

Map

Warning: this location is abandoned, hazardous, or otherwise neglected and may be unsafe and even dangerous! Exercise appropriate precautions when visiting.