Cold storage
refrigerators were non-existent in jane austen’s
day. for the well-to-do, however, icehouses were
becoming all the rage, as joceline bury reportsD
evelopers working on the
rebuilding of a Georgian crescent
in central London last year
uncovered a remarkable structure:
a huge underground icehouse dating from
the 1780s. The red-brick, egg-shaped
chamber survived the Blitz, despite the
destruction of the mews houses above, and
remains in excellent condition, along with its
entrance passage and vaulted ante-chamber.
Its survival, according to Jane Sidell,
inspector of ancient monuments at Historic
England, is largely down to “the great
engineering and construction abilities
present towards the end of the 18th century”.
Located close to the elegant houses of
Regent’s Terrace designed by John Nash,
the subterranean icehouse would have been
one of the largest of its kind when first built.
Its internal dimensions, an impressive 7.5m
wide and 9.5m deep, indicate that it was
designed for commercial use. It is thought to
have been built for Samuel Dash, to store ice
taken from the River Thames in the winter
months, and pre-dates the building of the
John Nash crescent. By the early years of the
19th century it was being used by William
Nicholas I of Russia, who as Grand Duke
visited Brighton in 1817 and was served
all manner of frozen delights (painted by
Franz Krüger in 1852)