One of my own personal Christmas traditions is to go ice skating. Usually it’s at Bournemouth but last year I tried (and failed; the blades weren’t sharp enough) in Reykjavik and this year I finally had the opportunity to have the iconic Christmas experience of skating at Somerset House in the heart of London, or SKATE, as they brand it.
It’s been on my to-do-one-day list for years – you know that list you have in a dusty corner of your mind that you never make any effort to work through? Well, I was in London on the Friday for my work Christmas cookery class and the two of us from the countryside were then asked to come up on the Thursday so we could have a little informal get-together in the office to take a look back at the year. That meant an evening in London! Once upon a time, my boss used to feel like he had to provide some kind of entertainment for us but he’s realised I’ll jump at a free evening in London to do all kind of things without needing my hand (metaphorically) held and this time it was skating!
Kate, my fellow rural colleague, and I had booked the 9pm slot. We didn’t know how long we’d be in the office or where we’d be staying, so later seemed safer. Booking full stop seemed safer – I’ve bought tickets online while in the queue in Bournemouth rather than wait for the one person wielding a card machine but I didn’t want to risk something like this being sold out on the night. It was about £23 for an hour’s session, including bag storage (free for one item; extra if you have more than one item) and skate hire and DJ’d by local artist Babyschön. Oddly, this Skate Late with entertainment was a little cheaper than an ordinary DJ-free session.
We did send the link round in case anyone else wanted a bit of out-of-office festive socialising but it was a no, so the two of us left the Premier Inn Tooting about 8pm and walked along the Embankment a bit before figuring out that SKATE’S entrance is off the Strand and them the rink is in the quadrant in the middle of the building, which makes for a great backdrop!
We didn’t get round to exploring them but there were various little stalls around the rink offering snacks and especially drinks – it’s all sponsored by Aperol Spritz, which might also be why the lighting has such an orange tinge. We took some photos in front of the rink, had our tickets scanned and then Kate’s little crossbody got flagged as too much of a bag to go on the ice. Mine, just big enough for a phone and a handful of cards, was deemed “just one of those phone holders”, so we detoured to bag storage before going to get our skates. They say to get your usual size but Kate found her usual size far too big and had to change down and mine had more space around my toes than I’m used to. But then, I’m also used to losing all feeling in my toes with fifteen minutes, so no complaints.
It took a few minutes to notice but SKATE doesn’t provide skating aids – you know, those plastic penguins or high-backed seats that you push around to help you balance. And as soon as I noticed that, I noticed that people were skating a lot better than they ever do at Bournemouth. Barely a soul trying and failing to walk heel-toe on their skates. Barely a soul clinging to the edge for dear life. As the hour went on, we were picking up on individual people who were visibly improving in ability or confidence or both. It’s not exactly conclusive evidence but it seems that if you’re struggling to skate, not having an aid is exactly what you need. I also noticed there were no children – it turns out Skate Lates on Thursday & Friday are adult-only. Aids are available for under-8s during non-Skate Late sessions and if there are spares, you might get a chance to borrow one as an adult. But honestly, I think you’ll pick it up quicker without one.
As for me, I know from years of experience that it takes two or three circuits of the ice for my muscle memory – or my confidence – to kick in. I did my share of bike riding as a kid but we were bigger on skates, specifically inline skates, which are basically ice skates with the blades swapped for wheels. I had the Fisher Price strap-on quads when I was really little, the kind that you can pull apart to extend them as your feet grow but as soon as I was old enough for real skates, I had inline ones. I spent my evenings for the best part of ten years skating around on those things. So I know that I know how to skate on ice, I just have to wait for my legs and brain to remember.
Well, this time, I was only halfway down the first side when my legs urged me to let go of the side and push off a bit. That first circuit was pretty halting and uncertain but I was definitely standing up unassisted and moving round successfully. And once I’d done it once, I could keep going and pick up the confidence as I went. Yes, I can do this! Yes, I can swerve around people and dodge accidents-about-to-happen. Mostly I’m doing one or two pushes, then just gliding but I had a burst of confidence that inspired me to try three or four pushes and that was too much – or rather, it was too much with that many people moving irregularly on the ice. That was the one time I was the idiot causing the accident-about-to-happen (which it didn’t because I dodged, someone else dodged and I came to a semi-controlled crash against the wall, deciding not to try that again) rather than just someone avoiding other people’s near-accidents.
Because this increased general confidence with lack of skate aids doesn’t mean people didn’t still have accidents. Mostly they were just losing their balance, flailing cartoonishly before dropping, rather than mowing anyone else down, and every time, the marshalls just appeared out of thin air to help them up. We saw one girl go down face-first, the kind where she looked like she was lucky not to smash her nose and a few men fell with the sort of thud that you felt through your skates as well as heard halfway down the rink. No injuries requiring first aid, though, even the nose girl, as far as we could see.
I often find my feet are cramping up less than halfway through but I was skating with Kate so I wasn’t just doing endless rings around the rink. We stopped to look for each or to be found, we stopped to compare observations on our fellow skaters and we stopped to take photos and videos of each other. I skated perhaps less than usual and in more comfortable skates and as a result, I was still feeling good when we were ordered off the ice.
So I would absolutely do that again if I found myself in London in December (it continues for a while after Christmas but ice skating is a Christmas thing for me). It’s such an iconic thing to do, skating at Somerset House and I’m so happy to tick it off my to-do list.
I Am A Polar Bear 