National Geographic History - 05.2019 - 06.2019

NEWS

They quickly determined

that it was an icehouse, one of

the biggest ever found in the

city. The egg-shaped cham-

ber dates to the 1780s and was

used well into the 19th centu-

ry to store blocks of lake ice

brought in from Norway.

During the German Blitz

in World War II, bombs de-

stroyed the houses above but

rchaeologists from

MOLA (Museum

of London Ar-

chaeology) were

carrying out a site investi-

gation in the city’s wealthy

Regent’s Park district when

they made a chilling dis-

covery: a massive brick-

built chamber measuring 31

feet deep and 25 feet wide.

Deep Freeze:

London’s Lost Icehouse

Buried away underneath the streets of London is a cavernous chamber

once used to supply ice to the wealthy in the 18th and 19th centuries.

ICE AND INDUSTRIALIZATION

did no damage to the cham-

ber below. Rubble from the de-

struction was used to fill the

icehouse, hiding it for decades.

Historians had long been

aware that an icehouse was

somewhere in the area, but

they did not know exact-

ly where. It took months

to remove the debris from

the chamber. The complex,

a few feet above a busy un-

derground rail line, was built

to last.

A Cool Fortune

Following its discovery, it has

been possible to piece togeth-

er its story, and the central role

it played in London’s ice trade.

Although the Regent’s Cres-

cent icehouse was one of an

4 MAY/JUNE 2019

A

ABOVE: An archaeologist inspects the exterior of

the underground icehouse discovered in London’s

Regent’s Park district. RIGHT: Researchers explore

the icehouse’s 31-foot-deep, egg-shaped chamber.

BELOW RIGHT: A sketch shows the layout of the

brick-built chamber and the location of its two

entrances, one for workers and the other for ice.

25 feet

31 feet

opening at ground levelIce deposited through

Entrance for workers to

extract ice

MOLA

MOLA