First artificial ice rink

The earliest successful attempt to create an artificial ice rink for recreational purposes was made by inventor Henry Kirk and architect William Bradwell (both UK), who opened a "Frozen Lake" in the grounds of Jenkins seed nursery in London, UK, on 13 December 1841. Created before the invention of any technology for freezing water, the rink's 3.6 x 1.8 m (12 x 6 ft) surface was made not from ice but from Kirk's patented concoction of alum or sulphur salts mixed with water and "hog's lard, to render it more slippery". The use of copper sulphates gave the "ice" a bluish hue, and Bradwell's designs for the room recreated a "very picturesque landscape". To attract investors in this new pastime, Kirk and Bradwell invited "England's best skaters" to test out the rink, although the smell from the pork fat was, by some accounts, off-putting to visitors.

The surface of Kirk's rink was about 2.5 cm (1 in) thick and, according to a report in the Observer newspaper, sufficiently durable to "resist the effect of from one to two years' incessant skating". The following year, Kirk and Bradwell opened a larger rink at the Colosseum in nearby Regent's Park, although this also failed to garner sufficient commercial interest, despite visits from Prince Albert and Prince Alexander of the Netherlands. A third effort opened with some fanfare on Grafton Street in London in 1844, but once again the smell proved too much for the skating public and the rink closed. It would not be until the 1870s, and the development of mechanically frozen water, that ice skating took off as a popular pastime.