Editor’s Note: Organizers of this event announced on Dec. 22 that it had been canceled.
San Francisco’s most famous roller disco is set to bring some much-needed energy to one of the city’s white elephants next week.
On Dec. 29, the Church of 8 Wheels will take over the 19th century Hibernia Bank building, located just off Market Street in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood, for an evening of funk-inflected, adults-only skating courtesy of David Miles Jr., San Francisco’s self-proclaimed “Godfather of Skate”—who’s been in the game for more than 40 years, both at the actual Church of 8 Wheels on Hayes and Fillmore streets and at Skatin’ Place in Golden Gate Park.
“I’m always looking for some place people will come and let us skate,” Miles told The Standard. “And it always works out better than anyone imagines.”
Bank of 8 Wheels, as the event is called, will take over the massive edifice, with its vaulted ceilings and cast-iron steel columns. It survived the 1906 earthquake and fire with only minor damage, although local lore holds that the safe was too hot to open for a month after the disaster—and none of its contents were found to be damaged.
That level of heat sounds like an apt metaphor for Bank of 8 Wheels.
“It’s like destiny or something, all these old iconic buildings,” Miles said. “We did Grace Cathedral a few years ago. I think this is just the right thing that San Francisco needs.”
Whether Bank of 8 Wheels will be a one-off event beneath the bank’s 65-foot-high dome, only time will tell.
“We’re talking about doing it on a regular basis. In my experience, the first times are the hardest,” Miles said. “But we’re going into 2024 with a plan to make this a destination.”
The building’s lower levels are a warren of subterranean chambers, which could house separate DJs in addition to the roller rink one floor above. That vision—of a three-in-one party—is the very opposite of the controversial “NO DANCING” sign installed on JFK Drive near Skatin’ Place.
But skating could be a major player in Downtown’s revitalization.
