The flood-damaged ice rink as it is now

SAVE our ice rink! This is the call from a campaigner who says skating at the Sobell Centre in Holloway gave his life a new purpose.

The rink has been closed since the dramatic floods last July after a Thames Water mains pipe burst, flooding Hornsey Road and Tollington Road with three feet of water and leaving homes and businesses with serious damage.

Charlie Neville has now started a petition to salvage the flood-damaged rink, and has already amassed 1,200 signatures.

“I came out of living in a therapeutic community for people with mental health problems and began playing ice hockey in the centre. I joined the club, the Sobell Slappers, it’s a silly name, but these people have become really good friends,” said Mr Neville, 32.

“Playing ice hockey, getting into a sport, getting endorphins going – it’s a massively positive place in terms of all-round well-being. And we’d go to the pub afterwards, so it was a really enjoyable night for everyone. When the water mains burst it was upsetting for everyone because we lost that.”

Mr Neville initially moved back into his mother’s house after his time in the therapeutic community. A year and a half ago, he moved into his own flat, and he credits the Sobell Slappers with his new-found independence.

“The people in Slappers, especially one friend I’ve made, have made the transition possible for me to be more independent. I’ve met some really great people, really fantastic humans, and they’ve given me a social life outside of just me and my mum,” he said.

Since starting the petition, Mr Neville has seen first-hand how important the rink is to the whole community.

“When I started the petition, I got all these comments like ‘I’ve been skating there since I was a kid.’ The rink means a lot to a lot of people in different ways. I’ve been in touch with a figure skating coach who lost her job there [because of the flooding]. I’ve spoken to a woman who has a four-year-old autistic son who loves ice skating, but that’s been taken away from him now.

Charlie Neville

“I love ice hockey, and so do lots of local people because [the centre] was cheap and a fun family thing,” he said.

Mr Neville wants a guarantee from Islington Council and its leisure contractors Greenwich Leisure Ltd that the rink will be repaired and re-opened, and not turned into something that’s cheaper to run.

“We’ve heard it might become something else because ice rinks are expensive to maintain, so we wanted to put pressure on them to keep it as an ice rink,” he said.

Mr Neville still plays ice hockey with the Slappers at the rink in Alexandra Palace, but says it’s not the same.

“We’re desperate to play, so we play really late on a Saturday night, like from 8.30pm until after midnight,” he said. “It’s not the same. We used to play earlier in Sobell on a Monday night and then we could go to the pub after for the social aspect.”

Martin Whelan, who runs The Tollington pub across the road from the centre, has helped Mr Neville get the word out about the petition.

“Charlie and all of them have used our pub since we opened in 2006,” said Mr Whelan.

He said everybody had been affected by the floods and loss of activities in the Sobell Centre. “Every day of the week there was something on over there. We’re only getting one leg under the table after Covid and now this. Sixty million quids’ worth of damage done on this street,” he said.

A spokesperson for the council said: “We’d like to thank local people for their patience while we work with GLL to restore services at the Sobell Leisure Centre, following extensive flooding in August 2022. So far we have been able to reopen the gym and studio at Sobell, and have restarted the fitness programme.

“However, the flooding has caused major damage to other areas, and significantly more work is needed to fully reopen the centre. The council and GLL are working together to reopen the centre as quickly as possible.

“Alongside the GLL, we will continue to keep residents and customers up-to-date with the latest information. Sobell customers continue to have free access to all GLL-operated leisure centres in Islington.”