Ellie and I recently visited Canary Wharf Ice Rink for the first time. It’s now closed, but is due to open again from October 2023 to February 2024. This makes it the London ice rink with the by far longest skating season. Some other rinks only open for 4 or 5 weeks.
COSY ATMOSPHERE, BEAUTIFUL SKYLINE AT CANARY WHARF ICE RINK
We absolutely loved the experience. Canary Wharf Ice Rink is so cosy, under its glass roof. No wind. No rain. And then, of course, there is the beautiful skyline.
NOT TOO CROWDED
When we visited, there were hardly any other people on the ice. Presumably this was unusual. However, I can see how perhaps many office workers don’t want to engage in physical exercise while wearing their expensive business attire. It kind of also makes sense that Canary Wharf is not a place that is known to attract vast numbers of tourists or families with children.
REASONABLE PRICES AT CANARY WHARF ICE RINK
It seems unlikely that the prices put people off. For London, £17.99 for teenagers and adults would seem like a reasonable price. Children aged 12 and younger go for £13.50. Lockers can be rented at a cost of £1.
FRIENDLY STAFF
The staff are super-friendly and smiley and several of them carve their circles around the rink at the same time, helping up people that have fallen over, making sure that everything is running smoothly.
LONG SESSIONS AT CANARY WHARF ICE RINK
Indoor ice surfaces seem to need very little maintenance. So each session lasts for almost the full 60 minutes, which is great. At some rinks it takes 10, 12 minutes during peak times until everyone made their way onto the ice. Then the wardens start directing people back to the changing room area more than 10 minutes before the hour is over.
A FEW COOL GIMMICKS
Strong light beams from the ceiling project the Canary Wharf Ice Rink logo onto the ice and make it move around and change colour. There is also a roughly 12m long screen on one of the two longer sides of the rectangular rink. Video sequences of all different kinds run on it. Dream and real landscapes, commercials, and so on. You can take a selfie in front of the screen, if that’s your thing, or simply enjoy the visual stimulation.
We will almost certainly visit again on several occasions during the next season. 4.5 out of 5 in our book.
Looking for more London ice rinks? Check out our posts about the ones in Battersea, Greenwich, Hyde Park, Hampton Court, Shadwell, and Somerset House. Perhaps you have a taste for other fun winter activities? Feel welcome to have a look at the articles about skiing in Mayrhofen, Bad Hofgastein, and Dubai, my attempt at indoor ice-climbing, and our escape room experience with Breakin’ Escape Rooms.
4 Comments
Not being crowded would work for me Stefan so I could not kill or injure others with my flailing body LOL. Good deal too on the skating being inexpensive. I did this once at Central Park in NYC. Loved it even as I slipped and slid into seeming oblivion.
Ryan
Cheers, Ryan. Central Park in NYC sounds like an absolutely amazing experience. NYC does ice skating rinks so well. I remember watching the skaters on the little rink at the Rockefeller Centre during Xmas time… so beautiful. 🙂
As Canadians we grew up skating -indoor, proper outdoor rinks and just the local river when it froze. Skating is a winter tradition that we don’t do often enough anymore. Even though Toronto has several big good outdoor rinks. The Canary Wharf rink looks like a great one to visit – especially if you find it not too crowded.
Oh.. of course.. I had almost forgotten: you Canadians learn to skate before you learn to walk haha… Awesome. I’ve seen videos on YouTube of skaters doing 20km trips on frozen rivers through pristine, remote winter fairyland landscapes… that would be a dream come true for me. 🙂