London Canal Museum

The building where the museum is located was constructed in 1863. It was originally an ice store whose owner was Carlo Gatti, a Swiss-Italian immigrant who became an importer of ice-cream makers. He was an entrepreneur-hotelier, who introduced ice and ice-cream to London during the Victorian era. The museum tells the history of the canals, the people working in them and details of their work. The connection between the canals and the ice trade is that ice was transported to the warehouse by the reservoir barges arriving at Battlebridge, located in the rear of the building. This reservoir is located in the Regent's canal which is part of an extensive network of canals which still cover the UK and particularly London.