IceSpace dream melts as company ceases trading

Visitors to the site are greeting by a crude notice announcing that "IceSpace has ceased to trade" and instructing ticket holders to contact the ticket provider for a refund.

The attraction being dismantled

A spokeswoman for IceSpace's PR company said that they had only been notified of the closure on Tuesday morning. She said that the venue "took a lot to run financially" and whilst it has been "popular, it was not enough".

Billed as "the world's largest ice attraction", promoters hoped to attract 300 visitors through its doors every hour, as well as hundreds more at corporate functions every night.

It took more than a month to build the 300ft long, 70ft high structure which weighed more than 200 tonnes, equivalent to 200,000 litres of water.