We’ve recently checked out the Skylight Ice Rink in East London, which is located on a roof top of the Tobacco Dock. Take the DLR from Bank (one stop) or London Overground from Whitchapel (one stop) or Canada Water (three stops) to Shadwell station.
From the station, walk Cable Street westward until you get to the first major crossing, where you turn left into Cannon Street Road. Walk down Cannon Street Road until you get to The Highway. Turn left into The Highway, then immediately right into Chigwell Hill. When you reach the T-junction with Pennington Street, the Tobacco Dock parking house entrance will be on the opposite side of the street slightly to your left. The walking distance from the station is no more than five minutes.
There will not be any meaningful signage, but just enter the parking house and the porter will point you towards the staircase and lifts that lead to the Skylight Ice Rink and the bars. Once you reach the elevators, there will be signs, which comes in super-handy.
Despite the fact that it was one of the last open nights that Thursday at 6pm, there were less than 45 other people spread over the huge area, and less than 15 people on the ice. I guess that’s the advantage of extremely bad signage and next to no marketing: you get to enjoy this pleasant roof top ice rink nearly all by yourself.
We got ourselves drinks at the bars, then started exploring the area. We liked the heated, transparent plastic igloos and thoroughly enjoyed the grand views towards the City and the Shard. The ice rink is relatively small but looked fun enough. In the end we did decide against hiring skates and doing our usual somersaults on ice. We’ll reserve that for next year.
Looking for more fun things to do? Check out our posts about Our 2019, our Strasbourg food tour, karting in London, mountain biking in Dorking, and riding a quad in Crawley.
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