Olympia Palace

Located in Hinckley, Leicestershire. The Olympia Skating Rink opened, at the junction of Mill Hill Road and Cleveland Street, on Saturday 20th July 1910. A very large hall, holding over 1,000, it had a full orchestra and was advertised as having “the finest floor in the Midlands”. Entrance was 3d, skates were 9d (while bicycles were stored free of charge!). There was a cafe, and a balcony seating 200.

Even as it opened, the ‘Hinckley Times’ remarked that “it may subsequently be turned into a picture palace if rinking falls off”. Which is exactly what appears to have happened, as the building re-opened in December 1911 as the Olympia Palace, hosting “pictures and variety”.

However, that was also short-lived, as it was seemingly closed as early as 1912. After being used as a factory, first for boots and shoes and then for hosiery, the building re-opened as a skating rink on Saturday 29th February 1930, utilising its original maple floor (which had presumably been carefully covered up during its other uses).

But catastrophe soon followed when, in April 1931, the building was burnt down in a huge fire which also destroyed the adjoining premises of the Cleveland Hosiery Works.

By 2018, apartments occupied the whole site.

(Sourced from hinckleypastpresent.org, with thanks to Darron Keeling.)

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