Lee Valley Ice Rink (Lee Valley Ice Centre) can be found in northeast London at the northern edge of Hackney. The old rink has just been replaced by a new £30 million facility which houses two Olympic-sized ice rinks, a gym, a dance studio and a cafe. The new centre opened in June 2023.
Lee Valley Ice Rinks are home to several ice hockey teams, including the Lee Valley Lions of the NIHL 2 South league. Lee Valley Ice Centre is just one of 41 ice facilities in the UK that are home to competitive ice hockey teams.
Information For Lee Valley Ice Rink
Lee Valley Ice Rink Parking
Lee Valley Ice Centre has 155 parking spaces, of which 16 are accessible and 31 are electric car bays. Users of the centre get 3 hours of paid parking, and anyone that spends £5 in the Venue cafe can park free of charge for 2 hours. The maximum stay is 4 hours, and if you need to stay beyond your free allowance, you will need to pay £4.00 for each hour.
Lee Valley Lions Ice Hockey Team
Lee Valley Lions is an ice hockey team playing in the UK’s NIHL 2 South (Wilkinson) division. The team will be based at the new Lee Valley Ice Centre, which is scheduled to open in early 2023. For now, the Lee Valley Lions are still playing away games.
The amateur NIHL 2 league is the fourth-highest in the UK, behind the EIHL, NIHL National and NIHL 1 leagues. Thirteen teams compete in the southern division (see below), and nine teams compete in the northern division.
NIHL 2 South (Wilkinson) Teams
The teams charge for entry to games, generally £5-£10 for a non-concessionary adult and reduced rates for children and OAPs.
NIHL 2 South teams compete for the regular season title, the playoff title, and the Wilkinson Cup. The regular season runs from September to late March, and the season concludes in early April with a playoff weekend for the semi-final and final games.
How Cold Is Lee Valley Ice Rink?
If you haven’t been to a hockey game before, you need to know that ice rinks are cold places (not a surprise!). And the closer you are to the ice, the colder you will be. Also, hockey rinks in the UK aren’t heated, so temperatures in the arena drop in line with outside temperatures.
As this rink is so new, we can’t advise on the temperature relative to other rinks. However, we will update you as soon as we can.
Lee Valley Ice Rink Seating
At the moment, all we can tell you is that the seating capacity of the new rink will be 800. Once the rink opens, we will provide further information.
9 Best Ice Rink Activities To Do At Lee Valley Ice Rink
Watching an ice hockey game is just one of many things to do at Lee Valley Ice Rink. There is a wide range of ice rink activities on offer, including:
- Public ice skating sessions
- Ice skating lessons
- Ice hockey lessons
- Join a recreational ice hockey team.
- Ice dancing or figure skating
- Synchronized Ice Skating
- Ice skating birthday parties
- Try an ice disco with music, a DJ and disco lights.
- Learn to curl and join a curling team.
