Romford Ice Arena: the history of the rink, 1987–2013
For a generation of east Londoners and Essex families, "going to Romford Ice" meant the rink on Rom Valley Way. Romford Ice Arena opened in 1987, hosted public skating, discos, figure skating and the Romford Raiders for more than 25 years, and closed for good in April 2013.
Building a rink for Romford
The arena was built in the mid-1980s, part of a wave of new British rinks that followed the growth of ice hockey and the popularity of skating on television after Torvill and Dean's Olympic gold in 1984. It stood on Rom Valley Way, the road that runs south of the town centre beside the River Rom, and was owned by the London Borough of Havering, which leased it to private operators to run.
It opened in 1987. The building was a plain sports shed with a single ice pad, spectator seating along the sides for hockey, a café and, in the early years, rows of arcade machines that kept teenagers busy between sessions.
The first game
The newly formed Romford Raiders played the first ice hockey match on the new rink on Sunday 13 September 1987, beating Oxford City Stars 9–6 in front of 479 spectators. Their first captain, Erskine Douglas, scored the first goal. The Raiders went on to make Rom Valley Way their home for 26 seasons; their story has its own page.
What went on there
- Public skating every day, from weekday family sessions to busy Saturday afternoons.
- Evening discos, which for many local teenagers in the late 1980s and 1990s were the social event of the week.
- Learn-to-skate courses for children and adults, a schools programme and resident figure skating coaches whose pupils trained on early-morning and patch ice.
- Birthday parties, function and room hire, and conferences.
- Ice hockey: the Raiders, their development sides (the Romford Spitfires and later the Romford Fury) and junior teams.
The rink even had a brief moment on national television: in December 2007 it featured in a BBC Christmas ident.
Ageing and uncertainty
By the late 2000s the building was showing its age. A report in 2011 proposed demolishing it and rebuilding on the site with a gym and swimming pool; the council initially chose to renovate instead. The longer-term answer turned out to be a completely new leisure centre in the town centre, and in 2013 the council sold the Rom Valley Way site to investors.
Closure
Romford Ice Arena closed permanently in April 2013. The Raiders moved to Lee Valley Ice Centre in Leyton and played as the London Raiders, and the town's skaters, figure skaters and junior hockey players scattered to other rinks. The building was later demolished. What happened next, including the five-year wait for a replacement, is on why the arena closed.
Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1987 | Romford Ice Arena opens on Rom Valley Way; first Raiders game on 13 September, a 9–6 win over Oxford City Stars. |
| 1988 | The Raiders win Heineken League Division 2 in their first season. |
| 2001 | The Raiders are English Premier League champions. |
| 2007 | The rink appears in a BBC Christmas ident. |
| 2011 | A report proposes rebuilding the site with a gym and pool; renovation is chosen first. |
| 2013 | The site is sold; the arena closes in April and is later demolished. The Raiders move to Lee Valley. |
| 2018 | Sapphire Ice & Leisure opens in Romford town centre on 3 February; the Raiders come home. |
Memories
If you skated, played or worked at Romford Ice Arena and have a memory, a correction or a date we have wrong, please get in touch.