Ice had traditionally been collected from frozen lakes or canals and stored over the course of the year. Ice for preserving perishables was initially only affordable by the wealthy.
The earliest commercial ice well found in London was rediscovered recently at Park Crescent West, after removing rubble deposited from the bombed Regency terrace. Extremely well preserved, having been built in 1780 for sale of ice to vets, doctors, dentists, and markets, as well as to wealthier individual households, it was used subsequently by ice merchant William Leftwich.
In 1822 William Leftwich started to import ice from Norway as “the best and cleanest in England”. The ice was transferred onto barges at Regent’s Canal Dock (now the Limehouse Basin) and taken along the canal where, from 1826, it was stored in an ice well at Cumberland Market. He continued to extract ice from the Regent’s Canal for his ice well at the Cumberland Basin.
In about 1839 Leftwich dug a large ice well at a wharf on the south side of the Regent’s Canal, off Upper James Street (now Jamestown Road), which was deepened in c1846 to 100 feet. It is shown in the sketch (Malcolm Tucker). Capable of holding about 2400 tons of ice, it was reported to be the largest in London. Extant, although paved over, it is located in the entrance to 34-36 Jamestown Road (now renamed the Ice Works), where there is also an information panel providing the dimensions and history of the ice well.
The photo shows a steam ship with masts, the SS Moringen, and a larger vessel behind apparently discharging ice from Norway and coal from the North East coalfields at Regent’s Canal Dock (Canal and River Trust). The barge on the right can be seen loaded with ice and appears ready for the tow to its destination ice well.
In the 1850s, Carlo Gatti established his warehouse in Battlebridge Basin, now housing the London Canal Museum. Beneath the former warehouse are two ice wells, 42 feet deep, partially re-excavated. He had a contract to take ice from the Regent’s Canal but also followed the lead of William Leftwich and brought his first shipload of ice from Norway – a cargo of 358 tons. By 1900 the company, then run by his daughter, was importing 250,000 tons of ice each year in a fleet of 28 wooden sailing ships. As a wholesale ice merchant, most of his trade was with ice cream makers, restaurateurs and other customers. As the trade grew, costs fell and Gatti was the first in London to make ice cream at a price affordable to the masses.