Archaeologists in London have re - reveal a ulterior ice house near Regent ’s Park . see back to the 1780s , the egg - shaped cavern was used to store ice , which was import from as far away as Norway .
Made from brick , the structure would have been one of the largest of its kind at the metre , accord to the Museum of London Archaeology ( MOLA ) . The testicle - determine chamber step 25 feet ( 7.5 meters ) across-the-board and 31 foot ( 9.5 metre ) inscrutable . Archaeologists with MOLAfound the ice house , also known as an ice well , along with its entrance sleeping room and vault ante - bedroom , during preparations for the development of the Regent ’s Crescent residential projection .
MOLA said the ice house is in remarkable consideration , given that buildings directly above it were destroyed during the London Blitz of the Second World War , and that a underground telephone line runs about 32 feet ( 10 meters ) underneath , as the Guardian reports .
It ’s hard to believe that a social system as large as this could have gone missing , but the entranceway was entomb during clean - up operation after the Blitz .
“ There was always an understanding that there was an ice planetary house here somewhere , but we were n’t indisputable where , ” David Sorapure , the head of Built Heritage at MOLA , toldthe Guardian . “ Even after we discovered where the entry was , we were n’t quite sure how big it was , or how you got in . ”
MOLA is working at the internet site on behalf of Great Marlborough Estates , which is currently reformulate Regent ’s Crescent , which once boastedelaborate stucco terracesdesigned by architect John Nash , who also designed Buckingham Palace . The ice well was built underneath the terraces in the 1780s by Samuel Dash , who had ties to the brewing industry . By the 1820s , ice - merchandiser and candymaker William Leftwich was using the Ice House to salt away and append trash for wealthy Londoners , according to MOLA .
While mod infrigidation had yet to be fabricate , that did n’t deter Englanders from wanting easy access to sparkler . It was n’t potential back then to make ice artificially , so it had to be amass from local waterway and stored in subterraneous ice houses , of which there were thousands in London alone ( though much belittled than the freshly let out deoxyephedrine house ) .
As the Guardian reports , workers at the ice star sign would condescend into the chamber to compile slice of ice when require . The ice would have been bear to customers , include restaurant and potentially doctors and dentists , via a Equus caballus - drawn cart .
While we may take access to ice for granted today , the frozen stuff was in high demand in Leftwich ’s mean solar day . According to a MOLA press release :
Leftwich was one of first people to recognize the potential for profits in imported deoxyephedrine : in 1822 , accompany a very mild wintertime , he chartered a vessel to make the 2000 km round trip from Great Yarmouth to Norway to pull in 300 tonnes of water ice harvested from vitreous silica - clear frozen lakes , an example of “ the sinful the lengths gone to at this time to serve up up luxury stylish wintry treats and furnish food traders and retailers with ice ” ( as put by David Sorapure , our Head of Built Heritage ) . The venture was not without risk of exposure : premature meaning had been mislay at sea , or run whilst frustrate impost functionary dithered over how to task such new cargo .
The newly re - discovered deoxyephedrine home has now been delegate a schedule Monument by Historic England . return study is plan for the social system , along with the twist of a viewing corridor to provide public access code .
As a fun , final fact : the first commercial-grade ice - making machinewas invented in 1854 .
[ MOLA , Guardian ]
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