Edinburgh city centre businesses' concern over axing of Christmas ice rink

The festive attraction has been popular with locals and visitors for nearly 30 years. It has been on George Street in recent years, having previously been in East Princes Street Gardens. It was a fixture in the annual Edinburgh Winter Festival, run by Unique Assembly.

Organisers blamed the “difficult decision” to scrap the ice rink this year on uncertainty linked to the closure of Princes Street in July and August due to the fire at the former Debenhams store, and “the significant costs of staging a rink in the city centre”.

An Edinburgh’s Christmas spokesperson said: “We continually review the programme and listen to feedback from our audiences, partners and businesses as we look at how Edinburgh’s Christmas can evolve from year to year.

“An ice rink requires a great deal of advance planning, with the ice rink supplier, design of structures and site arrangements committed months ahead.

“Those decisions had to be made over the summer, at a time when key parts of the city centre were closed and there was real uncertainty about when Princes Street would re-open and what the knock-on effects would be.

“This, alongside the significant costs of staging a rink in the city centre, with no opportunity for funding support, resulted in us taking the difficult but necessary decision not to present the ice rink on George Street this year.”

Offering hope to people who will miss this year’s Christmas ice rink in Edinburgh, the spokesperson added: “We know how much people have enjoyed skating as part of Edinburgh’s Christmas celebrations, and we hope the rink will return as we start the planning process for future years.”

Local businesses in and around where the Christmas ice rink would normally be placed, at the Charlotte Square end of George Street, expressed concern over the absence of the attraction this year.

Louise Maclean, director of business development at Signature Group, which runs Copper Blossom on George Street and Badger & Co on Castle Street, said: “Christmas is a hugely important trading period for hospitality, not only helping businesses navigate the traditionally quieter months of January and February, but also providing valuable seasonal employment for the many students and young people who return to Edinburgh over the festive period.

“We are concerned about the absence of an ice rink this year and the potential impact this may have on footfall across the city.

“A strong Christmas is vital for businesses and the wider community, and we hope the wider festive programme continues to attract the visitors needed to make this a successful season for Edinburgh.”

Two other local businesses were unaware of the ice rink being axed and were concerned about how this could potentially impact their footfall over the festive period.

The landlord at the Cambridge Bar on Young Street said: “It could possibly affect footfall, as it’s just around the corner for us.

“We did have a good amount of people come here last year from the ice rink. So it probably will affect us, but possibly not by a huge amount.”

Chandini Kesireddy, manager of Mediterranean restaurant Bistronomy 176 on Rose Street, added: “It will definitely affect us with footfall this year. That’s really disheartening.

“So we are very gutted about this news. We didn’t get any information this was happening, so it’s very disappointing.”