Thursday, June 23, 2016

Before Refrigerators: The Ice House

Thursday, June 23, 2016
Ice House 1817
Loretta reports:

Ice houses weren’t as rare in England as the excerpt from Ackermann's Repository for June 1817 makes one believe. Neither were baths, for that matter. And London did have its share of both. In the 17th century, King Charles II had not only one, but six ice houses built, including one for his mistress the Duchess of Cleveland.* You can read more about ice houses here, here, and here.

Photo of Duchess of Cleveland’s ice house scanned from Christopher Symon Sykes's Private Palaces.

Ice House Described
Ice House Described
*If you'd like to learn more about this remarkable woman, I highly recommend Susan Holloway Scott's (aka the other NHG) Royal Harlot.

Clicking on the image will enlarge it.  Clicking on the caption will take you to the source, where you can learn more and enlarge images as needed.

2 comments:

Sarah Cowa said...

Closer to home you can learn about the ice well at Gadsby's Taven in Alexandria, VA:
https://www.alexandriava.gov/historic/gadsbys/default.aspx?id=62354

Hels said...

Remember the novel The Ice House by Minette Walters? That book scared me witless.

 
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