News on Lee Valley Ice Centre

We wanted to let you know that our Board has given approval for work to start on the transformation of Lee Valley Ice Centre into a new world class venue. They agreed a funding package which is now being sent to Government for its approval – something required by the Act of Parliament which governs the Park Authority. Our Board’s decision means that the new venue which will be built in one phase and will open around a year earlier than we had first planned.

Designed by award-winning FaulknerBrowns Architects, the £30m regional centre will be the only venue of its kind in the south-east of England, and one of only three Olympic-sized twin rinks in the UK.

It will be built on the site of the current venue in Lea Bridge Road, Leyton and will have two Olympic sized rinks side by side – both larger than the rink at the current centre which will hugely increase our capacity. It will also have:

The new development will create a highly sustainable centre. It will be accompanied by significant improvements to the environment around the centre through new tree planting, some green roofs, reedbeds, native meadows and native shrub planting. The enhancements will result in a 30% increase in biodiversity

The current venue, in a normal year, attracts 279,000 visitors. The new Lee Valley Ice Centre is expected to attract 500,000 users annually, bring £1.5m of extra investment to the area, and around 45 jobs.

Because of Government Coronavirus restrictions, Lee Valley Ice Centre is currently closed except to under 18s who are being coached and to clubs. This will, subject to the Government’s lockdown roadmap, hopefully expand to over 18s who are being coached on 17 May. The current centre will then close completely on 27 June. Construction will last around 15 months, and we expect to open the new centre in October 2022.

We hope the new venue will become a place where people will come not only to skate, but to socialise and relax, and will be a meeting point for walkers, runners, cyclists and families using the surrounding green space.

We’ve already been in touch with coaches and clubs based at Lee Valley Ice Centre and are working with them to put in place a package of support to help them carry on with their training during the 15 month construction period.

Moving forward, email updates about the new Lee Valley Ice Centre will no longer be provided via this Commonplace website - instead, you can sign up to the new email list, managed by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, by clicking here and ticking ice skating .