The Lee Valley Ice Centre is located in Leyton in the Lower Lea Valley, London. The original venue opened in 1984, and a major redevelopment and expansion was completed in 2023. The centre now has two Olympic size (60 m × 30 m) ice rinks. [1] It is owned by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, and is home to the Lee Valley Lions ice hockey team.
The ice centre was opened in 1984 by Torvill and Dean. [2] By the 2010s the centre was aging and unable to cope with demand, and a redevelopment was proposed. [2] [3] There was some opposition from environmental groups due to the impact on Leyton Marsh, but the plans were approved by Waltham Forest council. [3]
The £30 million redevelopment was funded by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and the London Borough of Waltham Forest, and added a gym, dance studio and cafe together with the new ice rinks. [4] [5] Robin Cousins, Olympic gold medal winning figure skater and president of British Ice Skating, took part in a "soft-launch" event, before the centre opened to the public on Saturday 17 June. [5]
The Lee Valley Ice Centre is home to the Lee Valley Lions, an amateur side competing in the English National Ice Hockey League. It used to also be home to the London Racers, who competed in the top-level British Elite Ice Hockey League. The Racers controversially withdrew from the league in 2005 after the club claimed that the rink was not safe enough for "elite" level ice hockey, although this was challenged by the park authority.[ citation needed ] Other clubs playing at the centre include the London Devils, and Eastern Stars IHC. [6]
The music video for "Sugar Coated Iceberg" by The Lightning Seeds, which featured on their 1996 album Dizzy Heights , was filmed inside Lee Valley Ice Centre. [7] Dancing on Ice rehearsals are also occasionally filmed inside Lee Valley Ice Centre.[ citation needed ]
Leyton is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the River Lea, to the west. The area includes New Spitalfields Market, Leyton Orient Football Club, as well as part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The town consists largely of terraced houses built between 1870 and 1910, interspersed with some modern housing estates. It is 6.2 miles (10 km) north-east of Charing Cross.
Walthamstow is a town in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, around 7.5 miles (12 km) east of Central London. The town borders Chingford to the north, Snaresbrook and South Woodford to the east, Leyton and Leytonstone to the south, and Tottenham to the west. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of approximately 109,424.
The London Borough of Waltham Forest is an outer London borough formed in 1965 from the merger of the municipal boroughs of Leyton, Walthamstow and Chingford.
Lea Bridge is a district in the London Borough of Hackney and the London Borough of Waltham Forest in London, England. It lies 7 miles (11.3 km) northeast of Charing Cross.
Macquarie Centre is a shopping centre in the suburb of Macquarie Park in the Northern Sydney region of Sydney and is located opposite the main campus of Macquarie University.
The London Racers was a British ice hockey club based in London, England formerly members of the Elite Ice Hockey League. Although founded in 2003, it claimed to be a successor of the Harringay Racers club established in 1936. Due to a lack of suitable ice facility the club suspended its team operations part way through the 2005–06 season. It was the last professional ice hockey club to play in London.
The Lower Lea Valley is the southern end of the Lea Valley which surrounds the River Lea in eastern Greater London. It is part of the Thames Gateway redevelopment area and was the location of the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Lee Valley Regional Park is a 10,000-acre (40 km2) 26 miles (42 km) long linear park, much of it green spaces, running through the northeast of Greater London, Essex and Hertfordshire. The park follows the course of the River Lea (Lee) along the Lea Valley from Ware in Hertfordshire through Essex and the north east of Greater London, through the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to East India Docks Basin on the River Thames. The park is managed by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and is made up of a diverse mix of countryside areas, urban green spaces, heritage sites, country parks, nature reserves and lakes and riverside trails, as well as leading sports centres covering an area of over 10,000 acres (40 km2). It is crossed by a number of roads and railways.
Lee Valley White Water Centre is a white-water slalom centre in the Middle Lea Valley, in the Borough of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. It was constructed to host the canoe slalom events of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The Riverbank Arena was a stadium in the Olympic Park, in Hackney Wick, London, United Kingdom, containing a water-based astroturf.
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a sporting complex and public park in Stratford, Hackney Wick, Leyton and Bow, in east London. It was purpose-built for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, situated adjacent to the Stratford City development. It contains the Olympic stadium, now known as the London Stadium, and the Olympic swimming pool together with the athletes' Olympic Village and several other Olympic sporting venues and the London Olympics Media Centre. The park is overlooked by the ArcelorMittal Orbit, an observation tower and Britain's largest piece of public art.
Manor Garden Allotments were allotment gardens occupying 4.5 acres (18,000 m2) between the River Lea and the Channelsea River in Hackney Wick, London, England. They are also sometimes referred to as Eastway Allotments, particularly in the 2012 Summer Olympics planning application documents. They were demolished to make way for the Olympic site. The site was formerly in the London Borough of Hackney, but after ward boundary changes in the 1990s the footprint sat within London Borough of Newham. At the time of eviction the site was owned by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority. The "Eastway Allotments" were known more locally as "Abbott's Shoot" or "Bully Fen".
Leyton Marsh is an open space in the Lower Lea Valley, located in Leyton in the London Borough of Waltham Forest.
Planet Ice Arena Milton Keynes is a 2,800-capacity multi-purpose ice rink/hockey rink located in Milton Keynes, England, as part of the Leisure Plaza complex.
Sochi Olympic Park is an Olympic Park in Sochi, Russia. It situated in the urban-type settlement of Sirius in Imeretinsky Valley, on the coast of the Black Sea. The Olympic Park houses the main Olympic Stadium used for the Games' ceremonies, and the venues that were used for indoor sports such as hockey, figure skating, curling, and speed skating. It also houses training facilities, the Olympic Village, the international broadcasting centre, and other amenities. The park was designed so that all of the venues would be accessible within walking distance of each other. The venues are situated around a water basin containing a fountain known as "The Waters of the Olympic Park".
The Penrith Ice Palace was an ice sports and public skate centre, located west of Sydney in Penrith, New South Wales, Australia. It permanently closed on Wednesday 29 June 2022 It served as the home ice rink of the Penrith Valley Figure Skating Club, AJIHL teams Sydney Sabres and Sydney Wolf Pack. It twice was the home venue of the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) team Sydney Bears between 2007–11 and 2015-16.
Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre is a sports and leisure venue located in Leyton, London Borough of Waltham Forest, to the north of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. It is regularly used for international field hockey fixtures by both the Great Britain men's and women's field hockey teams. It hosted the 2018 Women's Hockey World Cup. Owned and managed by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, the site was previously known as Eton Manor and was a wheelchair tennis venue for the 2012 Summer Paralympics before being converted for public use and reopening in June 2014.
The Ice Hockey Queensland, currently trading as Ice Hockey Q is the governing body of ice hockey in Queensland, Australia. The Ice Hockey Queensland is a branch of Ice Hockey Australia.
The Macquarie Ice Rink is an ice sports and public skate centre, opened in 1981 and located within the Macquarie Shopping Centre in the northern Sydney suburb of Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Australia. It is the current home of the Sydney Bears and Sydney Ice Dogs AIHL ice hockey teams.
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