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Bristol Ice Rink, Bristol - April/May and December 2013 | Oblivion State Urban Exploration

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Bristol Ice Rink, Bristol - April/May and December 2013

Seffy

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Bristol Ice Rink (John Nike Leisuresport), Bristol

Visited with some of the Bristol massive!

A brief summery for you:

45 years of skating history was brought to an end as Bristol Ice Rink closed its doors for the final time.The popular venue in Frogmore Street hosted its last skaters for a farewell Halloween party yesterday before a planned redevelopment into student flats by owner Unite.

Bristol-based student accommodation specialist Unite wants to redevelop the 1960s building which houses the ice rink because it claims it is no longer viable.

It had considered including a smaller ice rink as part of the redevelopment but the idea was abandoned in June.
Demolition has been approved.

We've been looking at this one for a while now, and this time, for the first time, it would seem luck was on our side.

After a long week, this was certainly a rewarding way to end it. Think what you want of it, some would say this isn't particularly interesting and just a massive derp, but personally I found it fascinating to see and completely worth it too. Having visited the rink a couple of times when I was younger, it brought back some vague memories.

The place really is in a state, but then again it was in a state before it closed and indeed for the last however many years. That being said, the people of Bristol were still very unhappy at its closure. It did seem to be attracting a large amount of visitors still, which makes you question the closure further.

There is some evidence here and there of it being a cinema in its previous years, but this is mostly gone.

We also found what looks like an old night club, way up in the higher level, which looks like builders briefly moved in once, set up some lights and put some office desks around, then left. I didn't take any pictures up in those parts, as we didn't fancy having to pay parking fines so had to be off. That being said, there isn't too much of interest as it's all been fairly trashed. It was still interesting to see all that above the ice rink, a place where people mostly likely haven't been for years.

The complex originally boasted a ballroom, nightclub, bingo hall, banqueting rooms and amusement arcade but most of the centre closed down in the early 1990s. A successful campaign was launched to save the ice rink and Mr Nike stepped in to take on the business.
An interesting read from a Bristolian talking about building when it held a nightclub and a cinema too.

The rink from the front, years before closure:

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Snapz...

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s

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(y)



 

Seffy

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UPDATE from December 2013:

Demolition is getting underway in a rather fast fashion. All systems go for getting Bristol yet more student accommodation...

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Got skates?

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Wevsky

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Dont see many explores from places like this mate,shame about the state of pics from the update but cheers for posting youve got some good flicks there matey

:comp

 

Lara

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That is a bit nice and different! Cracking report, thanks for sharing :)

 

shaddam

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more and more different stuff popping up here lately !, this is lovely !

 
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I think it's great to see an ice-rink, certainly different and holds many memories for locals I'm sure, captured it nicely and glad you got in just in time! :)

 
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