Get your skates ready as a new ice centre is to open with a £1 icebreaker.
The Lee Valley Ice Centre is due to open its doors to the public for the first time on June 17 with a £1 skate experience for all who turn up.
Visitors can test out the twin Olympic sized ice rinks at the new centre in Leyton and enjoy activities for families, prizes, giveaways and entertainment.
This opening is the culmination of a £30 million investment by the venue owner Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, with support from Waltham Forest Council, to create a world leading ice venue on the site of the old Lee Valley Ice Centre on Lea Bridge Road.
It will be a welcome addition to sport and leisure facilities in the region, boosting the local economy by as much as £1.5 million each year.
The centre is one of only three venues in the UK to have two Olympic sized rinks and the only one in the South of England.
It boasts a gym, dance studio, community spaces and café, and includes £1.5 million-worth of landscaping, planting and environmental improvements to the surrounding area.
Lee Valley Ice Centre will offer public skating sessions, where anyone can come and try out skating, sessions from top class coaches, ice dancing, synchronised skating, ice hockey and ice discos, as well as community engagement activities.
It is expected to attract half a million visitors a year, double that of the old centre.
Shaun Dawson, chief executive of Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, said he could "not wait to welcome visitors".
"This world class centre is at the cutting edge of leisure," he added.
"It replaces our much loved old venue which served the community for 37 years as a space for people of all ages to meet, socialise and exercise.
"I’m delighted that we have been able to go so far beyond what the old venue offered and that we’re opening this new centre less than two years since we started construction work.
"We are excited to see communities here enjoying everything the centre has to offer and for it to become home to the next generation of skaters.”
Pre-register for tickets at www.better.org.uk/ice-centre.
All visitors must pre-book.
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