A quick video clip showed up in my socials tonight of a tunnel system, somewhere in London, I think, that has been repurposed into a skating rink with the walls and ceiling done up in bright murals.
Not everyone in the clip is on skates, some are in shoes.
Anyone know where this is? Links?
Sounds like the next step after turning elevated rails into a skinny greensward park!
It's called Hop Kingdom on Druid Street, Bermondsey. A few minutes walk from London Bridge Station.
I wonder if any of the ice skaters are also roller skaters? Two Sundays ago, a large group of inline skaters (and some on two-in-front, two-in-back roller skates) came down a street en masse, accompanied by music coming from somewhere. This was on a street somewhere between Lincoln’s Inn Fields (the Sir John Soanes Museum) and Covent Garden. It appeared to be an organized event, as some in fluorescent safety vests were stationed at the front of the pack. One’s vest had “See you on Tuesday” on the back, so maybe there are regular, organized street skates on Tuesdays and the occasional Sunday, at least when the weather cooperates.
So will the ice skating in the tunnel be year-round, I wonder?
I wonder whether the Colinton Tunnel in Edinburgh was the inspiration.
I think Stuart is on the money. Interesting! I'm pretty sure there's been bars with skate ramps elsewhere before in London. Never such a professional setup though.
It's not what you would call in a "network of tunnels". It's in a couple of what we call "railway arches". The arch-shaped spaces underneath where trains run. They're common all over the UK, especially so in London. People use them for all sorts of businesses these days, but it would generally have been mechanic's shops etc traditionally.
We're talking about skateboarding (and BMX bike riding) here. Inline skates aren't as common as they were a decade or two ago.
A former colleague of mine was a member of a women's roller hockey team. She had (or has?) four wheels on her skates.
