10-of-the-best: no.4 Gorky Park

Gorky Park is in a constant process of re-invention right now, which is partly about an (almost first) attempt to make Moscow a more liveable city and partly about some weird deals between the Kremlin, the mayor and an oligarch or two (so what is new?)

The initial stage, commissioned through the Strelka Institute (set up by oligarch Alexander Mamut), was to add in some new urban designish elements - benches, more up-market cafes, an outdoor cinema and a summer 'beach', whilst clearing the last of the mini Coney Island type fairground rides from the river frontage. Then this next stage, which is AMAZING! There is now the biggest and best skating area I have ever seen, a mixture of different rinks linked by ice ways, all framed by some quite neat wooden and colourful pavilions and bridges.*  I note that their website has a fab, that is to say quite hammy, animated CAD walkthrough (skatethrough?) crooned over by Louis Armstrong.

The stage to follow in the Spring is the shift of Garage from, well the garage (Melnikov-designed constructivist) it was in, to here. This is publicised as beginning with a pavilion by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, then a  temporary home designed by Rem Koolhaas’s Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) together with Olga Trevias/Form Bureau, which will convert the Park's concrete 1960s Vremena Goda (Four Seasons) restaurant, long abandoned. After that,  Garage will come to "occupy a nearby 8,500 square meter hexagonal pavilion. The historic 1920s pavilion of six sections with a courtyard (was) first constructed to house the first All-Union Agricultural Exhibition.."

So, of course, this leads to interesting questions. Well of course the usual one as to whether it will happen. And then there is the cash.  It was already known that Roman Abramovich has had a hand (and money) in the re-development of Gorky Park and now his girlfriend Dasha Zhukova, the owner of Garage, is moving in there too. As Andrew Osbourn put it in the Telegraph earlier this year: "using part of his estimated £8.4 billion fortune to turn (Gorky Park) into a showcase for the Russian capital is an undertaking likely to further endear Mr Abramovich to the Kremlin which regularly urges oligarchs to plough some of their fabulous wealth back into society". But then - maybe - they are also getting some real estate in return.

* I took the photo just after the ice had been cleaned, hence the emptiness. In fact, each winter since Soviet times, the paths of Gorky Park have been watered and left to ice all winter. I have only not skated there in the last couple of years because it always seemed as full as rush-hour in the Metro. Having a refrigerated bed has meant that this mild winter has not caused a problem; and the rink is just as full as it was in past times. 


Go here for more about the Gorky Park facilities and a list of the best other ice rinks in Moscow. 

yes, yes, yes!

So it has happened; the roof of our building has become an ice-rink for the winter. So excited - although I haven't been on it yet, its very basic and they do play bad music extremely loud. But, still,  what a great thing...

To find out more go to http://artplay-katok.ru/

so excited!

I can't believe this is actually true; pictured is the roof of our new building and I hear that there may be a plan to turn it into a skating rink this winter! Those of you who were around last year will know I spent a lot of time waxing lyrical about ice-skating in Moscow. And now I am going to get my own personal (well almost personal) skating rink...how good is that?

Will just need to not skate off the roof - only six storeys up....

Park

And - to get in as many snow pictures as possible before it all goes - witness the brilliant opportunity to go ice-skating around the park paths in Gorky Park (although the queues for tickets were inordinately long and the paths themselves as crowded as Oxford Circus tube station). And its hard to see just how much fine it looks from this picture.

and more ..

....But we did go skating on the rink erected at VDNKh. Looking very much like Winnie the Pooh and Piglet (well, quite a big Piglet). 

Thanks to Erica for the photo, even though I don't think this is my best side.

More Katok news...

So, we also didn't go ice-skating on the pond at Chisty Prudie, despite locals clearing a small amount of snow and skating in very small circles (as well as making some pretty good ice-slides).

And I have not yet joined the gang of enthusiasts who are currently arguing on-line about what time to go skating at the Palace of Sports Krylatskoye.

Meeting Tiger Rocky

Another slightly unintended experience centred on our attempt to see a 'typical' Russian New Year show. Quaintly, Google translates these as  'Firs', the yolka or Christmas tree celebrations for children. By the time I got around to booking, all the best tickets had gone or were inordinately expensive.

So I plumped for something called The New Year Adventure of Tiger Rocky (there is definitely a tiger theme here this year, related to the up-coming Chinese Year of the Tiger) because it was on ice, and included acrobatics and magic. It was a 3.00 pm matinee at the Sokolniki Sports Palace, in Sokolniki Park, and the first problem was that we couldn't find the stadium, despite being given many contradictory directions by people we asked. We arrived very late - which was a kind of blessing -as the audience was pretty sparse and the show a local, mainly amateur, affair. We did get our gifts from Ded Moroz at the end though, a bag of sweets, and the children who were there seemed to have a good time, with much shouting and joining in. And now we do know what yolka is. 

With thanks to Peter for the photo which shows Ded Moroz (Father Frost) in his rather fetching blue version - he also comes in red like our own Santa Claus - together with his grand-daughter, Snegurochka  (snow girl)... oh, and Tiger Rocky in the background. 

Skating in the dark

One of the things we did whilst my friends were here was enjoy the possibilities of outdoor ice skating. For reasons I can no longer quite make sense of, we elected to avoid the joys of the more obvious places such as the Red Square rink (too loud/gaudy), Hermitage Gardens (too obvious) or Patriarch's Pond (too picturesque?) Instead we went to a 'Movie' skating rink KinoKatok.

This involved both metro and trolley bus ride and took us into the middle of a huge, empty and bleak sports park. What we had trouped out there thinking would a big warm indoor rink with a huge video screen turned out to be basically an iced over car park with no-one else around, and a small - and very blank - open air screen at one side. 

Worked out okay in the end, as the adjacent cafe meant we could sit eating chicken and chips whilst we watched the only determined person amongst us, happily skating on his own in a snow blizzard!