Ice hockey was played at the Top Rank rink however. I was a member of the Sussex Ice Hockey Club and we practiced on a Tuesday night after the regular evening session. This was around 1970. The lack of spectator accommodation and having no barrier (just a step up from the ice) meant that full-blown matches could not be staged but the club did play away games. I recall playing against Solihull Barons.  Starting at 11pm it was our job to clean the ice (done the old-fashioned way with a tractor, plough and box which I think were inherited from the Sports Stadium; the rink didn't have a modern Zamboni) and we then played through to about 2am. I lived near Streatham and had to work the following day of course so I didn't get much sleep on those nights.

"Unfortunately the ice rink turned out to be a financial disaster and was converted into another cinema unit, leaving the town without an ice rink for the next thirty years odd"

The above section of the article isn't very accurate. The Sussex Ice Rink at the top of Queen's Square (though small) ran for many years. My father managed it for a while and I was frequently pressed into service there.