Location

779 Crawford St., N of Bloor, E of Ossington

Some parking next to rink, more on Crawford Street and in St.Raymond's school parking lot around the corner. See Satellite Map

Phone: 416 392-7687.

Single pad.

Schedule

See Schedule tab

City Councillor

The City Councillor for this rink is Councillor Layton

Christie Pits Rink Profile

updated November 09, 2008

Rink change area: There's a woodstove inside the rink change area. Good supply of benches. The rink has a large change room with huge windows -- a great view of the whole park, including the rink. Skate-friendly rubber flooring throughout. Used to have a daily snack bar run by youth but the kitchen is currently unavailable for use except for two hours on Sundays. Change room opens later and closes earlier than most.

Staff: One rink building attendant, one rink guard. Phone number: 416 392-7687

Maintenance: Done by a flying squad, which comes 1-2 times a day. When the zamboni is late and there's snow on the ice, staff have green ice shovels available and they work with shinny players to clean off the snow manually -- they say it works well and everyone helps.

Free shinny-hockey and pleasure-skating hours:

2011-2012

Free Pleasure-skating: Available a total of 18 hours a week , during prime time.

Free Shinny hockey: Available a total of 24:30 hours a week, during prime time.

*prime time means after 4pm weekdays and all day on weekends

Cost to run this rink.

There are no permit times available at Christie Rink. For information on permits at other rinks in the south district, contact Carol at 416-392-0361.

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Comments about this rink: e-mail us at rinkissues@cityrinks.ca.

Opening and closing dates:

Opened: Dec 1, 2012
Closes: Feb 24, 2013

Rink Diary 2012 - 2013

See also: Editor's and Rink Users' blog

January 30 2013

rain on ice, no skaters

found object: back-to-back bench

only one bench in change room

Christie Rink has one of the brightest, largest rink change rooms of any of the city's 53 compressor-cooled outdoor rinks. The rink has a kitchen with a counter facing into the room -- but the kitchen has been locked for many years. It has a wood stove given by the friends of Dufferin Grove Park in 1998 -- but the stove is rarely used. This year there is no firewood, even if some skater should want to make a cozy fire on a cold day. The recreation supervisor says that any fire in the wood stove needs a dedicated staff person to ensure safety, and the staffing funds are not there.

Besides that, there's only one bench in the whole big room, perhaps to discourage youth from hanging out in the rink house. So there would be nowhere to sit near the stove, to warm up and swap shinny stories.

Read More >>

Views of the rink

shinny hockey at Christie Rink

the view from Christie Pits rink change-room

Christie Pits in 1923: five rinks! (Toronto Archives).
Click on picture to enlarge.

drainage problem--looks like a pool but it's a rink

From The City of Toronto Website 2012-13

For the skating schedule, go to Christie Pits Rink page on the City website, then click on Skating.

For up to date listings of open rinks (not the same as scheduled openings), see Current Conditions on the cityrinks.ca Home Page

If you notice a different schedule at your rink, please let us know mail@cityrinks.ca
See also the City of Toronto Outdoor Rinks web pages.

Rink Diary 2012 - 2013

See also: Editor's and Rink Users' blog

January 30 2013

rain on ice, no skaters

found object: back-to-back bench

only one bench in change room

Christie Rink has one of the brightest, largest rink change rooms of any of the city's 53 compressor-cooled outdoor rinks. The rink has a kitchen with a counter facing into the room -- but the kitchen has been locked for many years. It has a wood stove given by the friends of Dufferin Grove Park in 1998 -- but the stove is rarely used. This year there is no firewood, even if some skater should want to make a cozy fire on a cold day. The recreation supervisor says that any fire in the wood stove needs a dedicated staff person to ensure safety, and the staffing funds are not there.

Besides that, there's only one bench in the whole big room, perhaps to discourage youth from hanging out in the rink house. So there would be nowhere to sit near the stove, to warm up and swap shinny stories.

Rink Diary 2011 - 2012

Saturday Dec.3 2011

3:15 pm: 15 teenage shinny players playing in the sun - the ice is wet on the northeast corner where it's been in the sun all day but it's not affecting the game much. The schedule for the season is posted on the changeroom window.

Once again the schedule shows the rink clubhouse as often closed, with limited staff. One way to solve the youth problem, lock the doors. Also no sign of any use being made of the community kitchen.

Sad, for such a promising resource, to see it so diminished.

shinny game

clubhouse - limited open hours -- why?

Monday Dec.26 2011

Rink user complaint, saying that a staff person told her she can't be pleasure-skating if she's not wearing a helmet. But there's no rule that requires helmets for pleasure skating except for young kids six and under. A puzzle, the more so since Christie Rink was marked as "closed" on Boxing Day...?

January 7 2012

Pleasure-skating time

A smallish number of skaters were out for pleasure-skating, although other nearby rinks were packed. I asked the rink attendant about the message on the city website, lasting several days, saying that Christie was closed due to broken glass repair. He said the rink was only closed for a few hours because one of the panes around the rink had been smashed, maybe by a puck.

He also said that the wood stove has not been used at all this season, since the weather is so warm. He said there might not be any wood, either.

The rink house closes at 6 pm on both days of the weekend and it stays closed on weekday mornings, so schools that want to come can't use the change room or the washrooms. Consequently, fewer classes come.

Read More >>

Diary 2010 - 2011, Diary 2009 - 2010, Diary 2008 - 2009, Diary 2007 - 2008, Diary 2006 - 2007, Diary 2005 - 2006, Diary 2004 - 2005, Diary 2003 - 2004