He built four or five more workshops over the extensive site, and one of the last was the red-brick riverside building of 1915 which later became Richmond Ice Rink.

From 1914 to 1915 about 6,000 Belgian refugees, some of them injured soldiers, settled in the Twickenham and Richmond area after the Germans invaded their country, many of which became workers at the factory.

[4] After the war almost all the Belgian refugees returned home, but Charles Pelabon continued to use the site for general engineering until 1924.

All the skating clubs that had previously been based at the ice-rinks at Hammersmith and Earl's Court transferred to Richmond, making it the premier rink in London.

[1] Arnold Gerschwiler was head coach at the Richmond Ice Rink from 1938 and was made director in 1964 until its demolition in 1992.