Location

8 Avon Park Drive. Take Avon Park Drive north from the Queensway, just west of Royal York Road. See Satellite map

Schedule

See Schedule tab

City Councillor

The City Councillor for this rink is Councillor Milczyn

Queensway Rink Profile

Compressors: 100 hp plus 15 hp brine pump. This rink uses freon.

Rink change area: There are changerooms but they are always locked.

Staff: This is an unsupervised rink.

Maintenance: Ice is cleaned once a day each morning.

Public Skating and open shinny hockey:

Free Pleasure-skating: Public skating all the time (shared use).

Free Shinny hockey: (Shared use).

This is a shared use rink. Shinny players and pleasures skaters share the ice surface.

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

Opening and closing dates:

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

Rink Diary 2012 - 2013

December 5th, 2012

noon The rink was closed when we went by. This tennis court rink can be completely locked up. The staff in the building said that the flying crew were on their way over and that the rink needed only another 2 floods. The ice looked pretty good, at least an inch thick in the middle. There was alot of debris, however, frozen in the ice, and the edges did look thin. You could see bumps along the compressor pipe line all across the rink. The rink building was closed but the staff looking after it allowed us to step inside for a minute. The staff said the building couldn't be open to the public because of vandalism concerns, even while he was scheduled to be there. We didn't to check to see if the washrooms were at least open.

January 4 2013

A staff person has been assigned to this building to keep the change rooms open and look after the washrooms between 7 am and 3 pm -- in other words, during those hours when the rink gets the least use. The staff person sits in a windowless staff room without a sign on it. The rest of the time the change room is locked, but the washrooms -- finally this year -- are unlocked until 9 pm.

wreath from the local business association

this $1.54 million building is mostly locked in winter

washrooms now mostly unlocked

change room, with only two benches but good rubber mats

January 9 2013

only one light during the dark season

skaters keep their bags in the washrooms

At 8.30 pm the rink had 18 skaters, plus 7 more people on the sidelines. The washroom had quite a few bags in it, since the change room is locked and skaters don't want to keep their back packs outside in the snowbanks. There seemed to be two shinny games going on, as well as a bit of pleasure-skating around the edges -- in the dark! There is only one small street light beside this rink, even though in much of the rink season it's starts getting dark in late afternoon.

When asked about playing shinny in the dark, some young skaters looked puzzled -- they thought that's how all the rinks are run.

Read More >>

See Diaries tab

Views of the rink

Shinny game: Sunday Feb 24, 2008 Click on picture to enlarge it.	Rink schedule Click on picture to enlarge it.
The rink viewed through the chainlink fence Click on picture to enlarge it.	The locked rinkhouse Click on picture to enlarge it.

There is no schedule on the City website

From The City of Toronto Website 2012-13

For the skating schedule, go to Queensway 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

December 5th, 2012

noon The rink was closed when we went by. This tennis court rink can be completely locked up. The staff in the building said that the flying crew were on their way over and that the rink needed only another 2 floods. The ice looked pretty good, at least an inch thick in the middle. There was alot of debris, however, frozen in the ice, and the edges did look thin. You could see bumps along the compressor pipe line all across the rink. The rink building was closed but the staff looking after it allowed us to step inside for a minute. The staff said the building couldn't be open to the public because of vandalism concerns, even while he was scheduled to be there. We didn't to check to see if the washrooms were at least open.

January 4 2013

A staff person has been assigned to this building to keep the change rooms open and look after the washrooms between 7 am and 3 pm -- in other words, during those hours when the rink gets the least use. The staff person sits in a windowless staff room without a sign on it. The rest of the time the change room is locked, but the washrooms -- finally this year -- are unlocked until 9 pm.

wreath from the local business association

this $1.54 million building is mostly locked in winter

washrooms now mostly unlocked

change room, with only two benches but good rubber mats

January 9 2013

only one light during the dark season

skaters keep their bags in the washrooms

At 8.30 pm the rink had 18 skaters, plus 7 more people on the sidelines. The washroom had quite a few bags in it, since the change room is locked and skaters don't want to keep their back packs outside in the snowbanks. There seemed to be two shinny games going on, as well as a bit of pleasure-skating around the edges -- in the dark! There is only one small street light beside this rink, even though in much of the rink season it's starts getting dark in late afternoon.

When asked about playing shinny in the dark, some young skaters looked puzzled -- they thought that's how all the rinks are run.

Read More >>

Rink Diary 2011 - 2012

Saturday January 7 2012

The city's website has a note that the rink building is closed. On a sunny Saturday morning at the end of the Christmas holidays, the ice is very scuffed up and snowy (not from precipitation). The signs are there, that this rink is well-used, at least in the later hours of the day. There is only one small bench for sitting and changing skates. The brand new designer building is locked with a sign saying that the locked doors are because of vandalism. Its real cause is poor city stewardship -- expensive rink plant, expensive building, and no programs. A pity.

new building on left, old one on right

mats from outside bench to rink

sign on locked door

interior view through the window

south end of building has machinery room

designer building, locked

Tuesday January 10, 2012

E-mail to City Councillor Peter Milczyn, from cityrinks.ca:

Read More >>

Diary 2009 - 2010, Diary 2008-2009, RinkDiary2007-2008