Bringing Natural Ice to London

Change came when immigrants from Italy and Italian-speaking Switzerland came to London; by 1860, Italian ice cream became a familiar sight in the streets. One of these early entrepreneurs, Carlo Gatti, founded his first ice-cream shops in London in 1851. He became possibly one of the first wholesale ice-cream makers in England. Gatti also transported large blocks of natural Norwegian ice by boat to London. The building now occupied by the Canal Museum just off Regent’s Canal is a former ice warehouse of his, originally constructed around 1863 to store the imported ice.