Rink change area: This rink must have won a design contest but its change room has been closed for many years and someone has scrawled "termites" on the outside wall.

Staff: No staff.

Helmet use: Not enforced

Maintenance: Variable, between once and twice a day, sometimes they miss a day. This rink is considered not a top priority - Catch-22.

Public Skating and open shinny hockey:

Free Pleasure-skating: Available a total of 74 hours a week.

Free Shinny hockey:

No hockey during open hours. But there's no fence around this rink and it's lit by streetlights, so it used to be a well-known night-time shinny hockey location. This is the closest you can get to actual pond hockey, including some very large and beautiful boulders sticking out of the ice. The boulders don't seem to bother the shinny players.

Comments about this rink: e-mail us at [email protected].

dramatic lighting on the Ryerson building

Click on image to enlarge it.

the builders and donours of the rink

2020 - 2021

Ryerson rink -- sole skater, stick and pucks, no staff to stop him

This rink, unlike any of the others, is posted as "no reservation required." The city's list says this is an unsupervised rink and there are no washrooms. That's because the little rink house has been locked for years. A staff person at another rink told me that's because there's asbestos. Probably just a rumour. I've also heard there are termites. Maybe there's a ghost.

A young man put on his skates and dropped a bunch of pucks -- obviously planning to take soem shots on the big rocks. There's no one to stop him. Will others come?

Rink diaries from earlier years:

2019 - 2020

No reports

2018 - 2019

No reports

2017 - 2018

Nov.28, 2017

The Star's columnist Edward Keenan published a nice plug for the outdoor rinks, and the photo is of three guys playing (illegal) shinny on Ryerson Rink -- nice.

Nov.10, 2017

The rink looks even more neglected than before. Year by year, the Japanese-style jewel of a rink house is locked up and encouraged to deteriorate.

nailed up

stating the obvious

2016 - 2017

2015 - 2016

This rink opened Dec.5, 2015 and closed February 28, 2016

Dec.11, 2015

It was warm and sunny, and many of the outdoor rinks were covered with a layer of water over top of solid ice. But Ryerson Rink is protected from the sun by the tall buildings close around it. So its ice was solid and dry. Even so, there were no skaters. Instead, there were skateboarders on the street right by the rink.

I asked them -- if there were cheap rental skates here and you were allowed to play shinny hockey, would you want to?

They said: right away.

no sun gets on the rink, so no melting

skateboarding instead of skating

2014 - 2015

Dec.15 2014

Dec.15: good ice, but covered with water

The rink was covered in water, with solid ice underneath. It looked like the last zamboni visit had put down too much water.

This spectacular rink, dotted by giant boulders, is only one block from Dundas Square, one of the premier events locations in the city, with the Eaton Centre right behind. It's inside the boundaries of Ryerson University. But few people even seem to notice the rink exists. Its stunning Japanese-design change room has been locked (and slowly allowed to deteriorate) for six years. There are no benches to change into skates. The city does nothing to promote it, and Ryerson University, with over 22,000 students, doesn't seem to care about it either. It's rare to see people skating there.

Why?

6-year-old signs plus a rink help line shut down years ago

photo taken through the window -- lockers and chairs in there

2013-2014

Monday January 20, 2014 - email from Gordon Hanna

I was looking forward to playing some shinny on the Ryerson Rink, 25 Gould St. However after last week have noticed the rink has been snow covered and almost abandoned for skating/shinny purposes. I was just wondering if I would have to shovel the ice myself or if the rink is closed early for the season. Any information regarding this matter would be greatly appreciated.

2012-2013

See also: Editor's and Rink Users' blog

January 30 1 2013

This rink is another one of the city's orphans, especially the rink house, locked for four years already.

remarkable rink with huge boulders

Japanese-inspired rink house design

rink house from the side, badly needs paint

Ryerson University facade (new)

front doors, locked for four years

signs on doors still say "closed due to construction"

See Diaries tab

Views of the rink

From The City of Toronto Website 2014-15

For the skating schedule, go to Ryerson, then click on Skating.

Rink Diary

2020 - 2021

Ryerson rink -- sole skater, stick and pucks, no staff to stop him

This rink, unlike any of the others, is posted as "no reservation required." The city's list says this is an unsupervised rink and there are no washrooms. That's because the little rink house has been locked for years. A staff person at another rink told me that's because there's asbestos. Probably just a rumour. I've also heard there are termites. Maybe there's a ghost.

A young man put on his skates and dropped a bunch of pucks -- obviously planning to take soem shots on the big rocks. There's no one to stop him. Will others come?

Rink diaries from earlier years:

2019 - 2020

No reports

2018 - 2019

No reports

2017 - 2018

Nov.28, 2017

The Star's columnist Edward Keenan published a nice plug for the outdoor rinks, and the photo is of three guys playing (illegal) shinny on Ryerson Rink -- nice.

Nov.10, 2017

The rink looks even more neglected than before. Year by year, the Japanese-style jewel of a rink house is locked up and encouraged to deteriorate.

nailed up

stating the obvious

2016 - 2017

2015 - 2016

This rink opened Dec.5, 2015 and closed February 28, 2016

Dec.11, 2015

It was warm and sunny, and many of the outdoor rinks were covered with a layer of water over top of solid ice. But Ryerson Rink is protected from the sun by the tall buildings close around it. So its ice was solid and dry. Even so, there were no skaters. Instead, there were skateboarders on the street right by the rink.

I asked them -- if there were cheap rental skates here and you were allowed to play shinny hockey, would you want to?

They said: right away.

no sun gets on the rink, so no melting

skateboarding instead of skating

2014 - 2015

Dec.15 2014

Dec.15: good ice, but covered with water

The rink was covered in water, with solid ice underneath. It looked like the last zamboni visit had put down too much water.

This spectacular rink, dotted by giant boulders, is only one block from Dundas Square, one of the premier events locations in the city, with the Eaton Centre right behind. It's inside the boundaries of Ryerson University. But few people even seem to notice the rink exists. Its stunning Japanese-design change room has been locked (and slowly allowed to deteriorate) for six years. There are no benches to change into skates. The city does nothing to promote it, and Ryerson University, with over 22,000 students, doesn't seem to care about it either. It's rare to see people skating there.

Why?

6-year-old signs plus a rink help line shut down years ago

photo taken through the window -- lockers and chairs in there

2013-2014

Monday January 20, 2014 - email from Gordon Hanna

I was looking forward to playing some shinny on the Ryerson Rink, 25 Gould St. However after last week have noticed the rink has been snow covered and almost abandoned for skating/shinny purposes. I was just wondering if I would have to shovel the ice myself or if the rink is closed early for the season. Any information regarding this matter would be greatly appreciated.

2012-2013

See also: Editor's and Rink Users' blog

January 30 1 2013

This rink is another one of the city's orphans, especially the rink house, locked for four years already.

remarkable rink with huge boulders

Japanese-inspired rink house design

rink house from the side, badly needs paint

Ryerson University facade (new)

front doors, locked for four years

signs on doors still say "closed due to construction"

Diary 2011 - 2012, Diary 2010 - 2011, Rink Diary 2009 - 2010, Diary 2008-2009, RinkDiary2006-2007, RinkDiary2005-2006