Manchester Ice Palace

Image: © Peter McDermott Taken: 21 Oct 2018

Disused ice rink, now put to industrial use. From an article in the Manchester Evening News: Opened by Lord Lytton on October 25 1910, clad in white marble, it hosted the National Ice Skating Championships a year later and the World Championships in 1922. A plant across the road provided the ice. At the end of each day, the churned ice from the rink was pumped through an underground pipe to iceworks. Fresh iced water was then pumped back to refresh the rink’s surface overnight. The Ice Palace was the only ice hockey rink in Britain during the early 1920s. A game between The Army and The Rest was played at the Ice Palace in November 1923 to select the British team for the 1924 Winter Olympics. It was closed in 1915 and used to manufacture observation balloons for the war effort. It reopened on November 21, 1919. It was requisitioned by the Ministry of Aircraft Production in 1941 and later reopened as an ice rink on March 21, 1947. For the next two decades until it closed in 1967, it was one of the most popular places to socialise in Cheetham, with 2000 seats for spectators. As tastes changed in entertainment it tried to adapt by screening films and hosting social nights. In the late 1960s it functioned as a Mecca bingo hall and was then used as a milk bottling plant and remains in use today for clothing outlets. Recognised by English Heritage as a building of historical significance and in danger of being lost, it is considered to be one of Manchester’s forgotten palaces, along with Victoria Baths and the Grosvenor Picture Palace.

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