'I visited the new Westfield White City ice rink and it's ideal for families and Disney adults'

The ice rink at Shepherd’s Bush’s Westfield opened up last Friday (November 15) so I decided I should go check it out. I haven’t been ice skating since Christmas last year so I thought it would be good - if not slightly daunting - fun.

An adult ticket cost me £19.65 so they’re not exactly cheap. However, Somerset House is roughly the same and Battersea Power Station is £16, so it's to be expected.

When I got there, I showed them my ticket. “Just you, is it?” Mildly embarrassed, I grinned and prepared to glide around.

READ MORE: 'London's being gutted by short-sighted decisions to shut theatres, youth centres and other venues'

READ MORE: Teenager chased down Hammersmith street and stabbed by group of men as one arrested

Getting ready

It is a pretty weird experience going to a Christmas ice rink on your own, but someone has to do it in the name of journalism. At least I had our photographer, Facundo, with me.

Inside the glass building housing the skates and staff, Moana 2 promotion greeted me everywhere I looked. Two massive plastic statues of everyone’s favourite culturally vague characters stood at the ready: Moana herself and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s Maui.

I would say it did feel more family-orientated than romantic, what with all the Moana decorations and merch. Some people look for that romance when going Christmas skating, but who knows, you could be really into Disney and cast my humble opinion aside.

It was 2pm on a Friday, making the rink pretty quiet - save some families of very young children Bambi-ing about on the ice. I switched my beat-up trainers for the hire skates brought over quickly by the helpful staff.

They weren’t the most comfortable, with a piece of the plastic tongue kinked right on the arch of my foot as I tightened up the boots. One of the straps on my right foot was actually broken, but no matter.

On the rink

I space walked, or clumped out onto the ice and slid on forward as kids and their mothers dawdled by with their penguin stabilisers. Suddenly I was thrown back to slippery dates with girlfriends of Christmas past... but I quickly cast the memories aside, I had work to do.

In the middle of the rink is a huge Christmas tree decorated with Moana trinkets and tribal-inspired baubles. It’s decently sized, a square about 30 metres wide and long. I had the rare delight of it not being totally packed with doting couples blocking the way with their romantic hand-holding and giggling. It was just me and the ice, bar a few kids.

The ice itself was nicely maintained, not slicked over with meltwater that would guarantee to ruin the rest of your soggy day if you fell. As I ungraciously hacked my way around, sheepishly trying to smile for the camera and not fall over, I was glad that my company was far too involved with their own merriments to bother noticing me.

A pretty whacky playlist was serenading the whole affair with some varied genres. I remember Rossini’s Thieving Magpie play, the song of Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of A Clockwork Orange, best not think about that one. Then soon after, some Flo Rida 2010 banger rolled on over.

I watched my fellow skaters tumble to the ice

Every so often, I felt the ice judder through my skates and heard a thud. I whipped around expecting to hear the shrieking of a poor little one follow soon after, but no, the boy quickly picked himself up and bounded off again unhurt. If I had made that fall, let me tell you, this review would have taken a very different shape - firstly, out of sheer embarrassment and secondly, cold, hard pain. Minutes later, I saw the same kid gathering up ice shavings and crafting an ice ball to be thrown at one of his playmates; I never did see the outcome of that one, though.

I carried on skating and having awkward photos taken of me and one of the attendants noticed my strap was loose and kindly came over to help me. When she saw the strap was knackered, she offered to change my skates, but I said it was alright, I don’t think it really matters at my level anyway - so long as they stay on. The attendants made sure to keep an eye on us all and came over to me to tell me to stop going the wrong direction whilst I was trying to get some action shots with our photographer. It was awkward, but fair enough, you don’t want to smash into someone head-on, and we managed to get our all-important photos anyway.

The return to thawed ground

Once we managed that, I decided to call it a day. I hadn’t been there long but I don’t think it would have been fair to force Facundo watch me slip about any longer, but honestly I had had a pretty fun time. It’s not often you get to do something like on the job, a welcome change of pace, quite literally.

I went back into the glass building and took off my skates. I bumped into the manager, who was surprised to see me come out so soon. I told him I was doing a review and had to get on to write it up. He seemed very nice about it and told me a bit about their opening day, saying it was quiet now but expected it to fill up over the weekend. He switched out my skates for my battered shoes which I quickly took off the counter before he could see how trashed they were.

When I donned them it felt like when you just come off the running machine at the gym, I expected to glide a little on each step. Alas, normality had returned and I had to get the Overground back home to write this. It was a fun experience, even on my own, but I would recommend you take someone with you.

The rink is open from November 15 to January 5, 2025, so you have a good month and bit to get down to Westfield in Shepherd’s Bush and try it out.

Get the top stories from across London directly to your inbox. Sign up for MyLondon's The 12 HERE to get the biggest stories every day