First ice rink

While frozen rivers, lakes and ponds have been used for recreational, amateur and professional ice sports for centuries, the first permanent, mechanically frozen ice rink was opened by John Gamgee (UK, b. Italy, 1831–94) in London, UK, on 7 January 1876. A veterinarian by trade, Gamgee had experimented with means of freezing meat for long journeys at sea and in 1870 finally patented a method that he later adapted to create his Glaciarium. Inside a canvas tent off the Kings Road in Chelsea, Gamgee laid a concrete floor measuring c. 5 x 7 m (16 x 24 ft) over which he spread an insulating layer of earth, cow hair, tar and wooden planks; on top of this, he laid copper pipes through which a mixture of glycerin, ether, nitrogen peroxide and water was pumped by steam engine. Water was then poured on top to a depth of around 5–8 cm (2–3 in), which would eventually freeze and provide the rink's solid surface. By March of the following year, Gamgee had moved to larger premises on the Kings Road, where he installed a rink measuring 12.2 x 7.3 m (40 x 24 ft) complete with a minstrels gallery, walls painted with idyllic Alpine scenes, and an exclusive membership scheme for London's high society.

Gamgee's Glaciarium was a development of an earlier less-successful project to popularize recreational ice skating by the British inventor Henry Kirk, who in 1841 used a mix of salts and pig fat to create the first artificial ice rink, also in London. Gamgee's invention proved more enduring, and benefitted from not smelling of lard, although the freezing process produced a thick mist that proved unpopular with skaters. He opened other rinks, including a floating rink at Charing Cross in London, but by 1878 had closed them all owing to dwindling interest from the public.