19th Century London wanted ice in far greater quantities than the
British climate provided. Whilst ice was gathered from lakes, and indeed from
the Regent's Canal, and was stored, the amount of ice available was small and
its quality often poor. Ice started to be imported from the United States in
the 1840's, with the Wenham Lake Ice Company as one of the most famous names in
the business. Carlo Gatti brought his first consignment of ice from Norway to
London in 1857, of 400 tons, and one of the two ice wells at 12-13 New Wharf
Road was almost certainly dug to receive it and store it until it was wanted by
customers. Customers wanted ice for food preservation, for making ice cream,
and for medical use. In the last 40 years of the century Norwegian ice
dominated the market in London. In this page we tell how ice was supplied to
London in the years between the middle and end of the 19th Century, after which
ice manufactured in factories began to compete with the natural product.
Ploughing the Harvest
Horse drawn ploughs
were used on the mountain lakes of southern Norway which had the merit of
accessibility as well as providing supplies of good quality clean ice.
Sawing the Ice
Individual block of ice had to be
cut by hand, using metal saws
One Block or Two?
Once it had been cut, the ice was
handled with metal tongs, hinged in the middle. Similar tongs were used for
lifting blocks with a crane. An example can be seen in the London Canal Museum
- the same type of tools were used in England.
The Ice Railway
From the lake to the ship ice
was slid along wooden ice slides, which included viaducts, curves, and
brakes.
The End of the Line
The end of the ice railway
route was the ship, brought to a loading point, where the ice could be stowed
loaded on board.
Loading the ship
The ships were loaded at a
number of points along the Norwegian coast. Most of the cargoes were loaded
along the coast south of Oslo. In the 1890's Norway was exporting 340,000 tons
of ice each year.
Route of the Ice to London
The ice was carried
by ship to Regent's Canal Dock, now called Limehouse basin, in east London.
There it was transferred to barges to be drawn by horses along the Regent's
Canal.
Unloading in London
We cannot be sure whether this
picture is loading or unloading, however it shows how the ice dogs were used to
lift blocks of ice to or from the hold of a ship, and indeed the same method
must have been used when the ice arrived at the ice store which is now the
museum. Unfortunately the museum does not have any photographs of ice traffic
on the Regent's Canal. The traffic ceased in the early years of the 20th
Century and, if any photographs were ever taken, they have probably not
survived.
Delivery to the Customer
Although there are few
records of the operation of the wells, we do know about the delivery of ice to
customers, which, using factory made ice, continued well into the twentieth
century with relatively little change. Ice was delivered in carts like these -
a model made in the late 19th Century is in the museum. The "Ice man" would
chip off a block of ice of the size you wanted.
Copyright
So far as is known, all the images reproduced on this page are either
out of copyright, or taken from the collection of the London Canal Museum.
Graphics are © Canal Museum Trust. Pictures are available from the museum's online Picture Shop.
