There’s nothing like donning a pair of skates to get you in Christmas spirit. Okay the doors of advent calendar are yet to be prised open and it’s still too early for afternoon eggnogs, but London’s pop-up ice rinks are already in full force.

Broadgate ice rink is rather dinky in comparison to Eyeskate or Winter Wonderland, making it the perfect spot for an after-work skate. Seeing as it’s a mere stone’s throw from Liverpool Street station (the announcements echo over Top 40 tunes), I half-expected businessmen to be skating circles around their briefcases. One, sure enough, glided past as soon as I gingerly wobbled onto the ice, saying with a cheerful smile ‘Is it your first time?’ ‘No’, I sniffed back, having always thought of myself as falling into the mediocre-at-worst category of skater. Thankfully, I was spared any spectacular stumbles and got my skate legs back after a few turns around the rink.  

If, like me, you’ve worked up an appetite after all that effort to be elegant, Broadgate ice rink has its very own pop-up restaurant – BAR BBQ on ice. As well as Christmassy drinks to warm your cockles (forgo mulled wine for their hot buttered rum), this Tennessee BBQ joint serves some of the most lip-smacking ribs, pulled pork and flat iron steak outside the Deep South. With a bar clad in higgledy-piggledy wood and naked bulbs hanging from the ceiling, it’s our favourite barbeque bolthole in the city. We reckon you deserve a meaty treat or two after an hour’s exercise so tuck into their hickory-smoked pulled pork shoulder, chilli cheese dogs and the baked beans with burnt ends. It might be a far cry from Christmas dinner, but we’d take their St Louis ribs over turkey any day.

Broadgate ice rink is now open until 27 February 2014 from 10am-10pm (last skate starts at 9pm).

Tickets

Adults £12.50, Children £8.50 (ages 4-13, must be accompanied by an adult aged 16 or over), families £33.50 (2 adults and 2 children or 1 adult and 3 children), concessions £10 (students/OAPS). Book at www.broadgate.icerinktickets.com or 0845 653 1424.  

For more information, visit www.broadgate.co.uk/ice

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE...

The UK's top seasonal ice rinks

Christmas carol concerts around the country

Our pick of the Christmas pantos

Come to a Christmas market