Lee Valley Ice Centre, London Borough of Waltham Forest for Lee Valley Regional Park Authority with LDA Design, FaulknerBrowns, Expedition Engineering, Max Fordham and BSG Ecology

The £30 million low-energy ice centre features two Olympic-sized rinks and pioneering water recycling through constructed wetlands, creating wildlife-rich ponds and discharging clean water to the River Lea. This world-first innovation revitalises a stagnant oxbow lake into a free-flowing, oxygenated water body. Additionally, 150 native trees have been planted, including black poplars. The facility combines elite sports training with significant ecological benefits, enhancing community.

Who is on the project? 

Landscape Architect - LDA Design 

Ecology - BSG Ecology 

Architects - FaulknerBrowns

Water Engineers - Expedition Engineering 

Engineering - Max Fordham

Describe the context of this initiative or project, its neighbourhood and the community it serves.

Lee Valley Ice Centre is a new £30m state-of-the-art, low-energy ice centre with two Olympic-sized ice rinks. It is also the UK’s most sustainable ice centre. It occupies the site of a 1980s single-rink venue in east London that could no longer deal with demand. The old rink was surrounded by extensive, hard-standing car parking and amenity lawns. LVIC is in an area of Waltham Forest that is within the 26-mile-long Lee Valley Regional Park and is near the Walthamstow Marshes SSSI, a rare remaining example of London’s floodplain grasslands. A £1.5million landscape transformation has reconnected the site with its ecological heritage, restoring habitats for native species such as grass snakes, otters and rare bumblebees. LVIC is now one of the most popular ice-skating venues in the UK. Open seven days a week it has already recorded 546,000 visits from across London. It is well used locally with two thirds of visits coming from Waltham Forest and Hackney. Waltham Forest is one of the most diverse areas in the country, with 47% of residents identifying as having a minority ethnic background. Their median age is 35 years which is younger than average for London. The redevelopment of LVIC serves the needs of a broad community by offering modern sports facilities including clubs, classes, dance studios and a gym. It also doubles capacity for ice activities including ice hockey for men and women. These facilities are set within a restored, biodiverse, climate resilient and attractive landscape which also serves the community.

Describe the intervention you’ve made, including its purpose and motivation. How will it contribute to climate resilience?

Sustainable water management is key to climate resilience. It mitigates climate change by protecting ecosystems and it reduces carbon emissions from water transportation and treatment. A key landscape innovation for LVIC is the recycling of ice melt water through constructed wetlands, creating wildlife-rich ponds and discharging clean water to the River Lea. This is the first of its kind not only in the UK, but across the world. Treated ice-melt water will shortly join rainwater from the roof and improvements to nearby watercourses to transform a near-stagnant Oxbow Lake on the River Lea into a free-flowing and oxygenated water body, and to create biodiverse ponds. The system has been approved by the Environment Agency. A sustainable drainage system includes the introduction of generous bioswales planted with native trees, shrubs and perennials that are climate resilient to survive winters with heavy rainfall and hot, dry summers. The overall project was led by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, with funding from the Authority and the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Extensive community engagement ensured the design met local needs, and public workshops and stakeholder feedback shaped the final design. The design team worked closely with local community groups committed to seeing the adjacent marshland protected and enhanced. For example, ‘citizen science’ proved crucial to understanding the desire lines of local grass snake species, creating a green corridor that has been proven to support their movement between the east and west of the site.

Explain the environmental and social impact of the project.

Climate resilience, sustainability and innovation lie at the heart of the design for the Lee Valley Ice Centre, inside and out. LVIC is the UK’s only all-electric ice centre. The building is highly energy efficient and airtight with enough solar panels to cover 2.5 tennis courts, more than any ice centre in the UK. It is also designed to attract visitors into benefitting from its setting, with easy access into Lee Valley Regional Park (LVRP) promoting contact with nature and improving health and wellbeing. The project’s environmental benefits are significant. A large overflow car park has been replaced with native species of trees, shrubs and wildflower meadow to create and expand key habitats and enrich biodiversity. Little-used amenity lawns are now wildflower meadows and over 150 native trees have been planted, including locally sourced Black Poplars. The project supports the circular economy, with as much waste as possible reused and recycled on site. There are upcycled picnic tables and benches and recycled decking near new ponds. Active travel is encouraged for visitors and bespoke bicycle shelters have green roofs and insect hotels. LB Waltham Forest and LVRP are investing £1.25million in a 10-year community programme at the Centre. There’s a weekly health programme, plus nature awareness sessions for up to 30 schools and community groups per year designed to foster environmental stewardship among future generations. In year one, 7,500 young people from 495 youth groups and schools skated for free and 700 people have been part of ‘Learn to Skate’.