London Canal Museum

London Canal Museum

The London Canal Museum is housed in a building that was built in the 1860s as an ice warehouse adjoining Battlebridge basin on the Regent's Canal.

It was built for Carlo Gatti, who imported natural ice in bulk from the Norwegian lakes, by ship and then along the canal. Two huge ice wells beneath the building have been partially excavated and one of them may be seen from a viewing gallery above. They are the only commercial ice wells in preservation.

 

Centrepiece of the museum, which is on two floors, is the butty Coronis, with its reconstructed authentic cabin into which visitors can go, to marvel at the cramped conditions in which a family of six might have lived. There are displays of canal art, and of Measham pottery which is renowned for its beauty and its strong association with the canals and their workers. The story of London's canals, the people who worked and lived on the boats, and the horses that pulled their boats is told, taking you back to 1924 with a video of archive film of a journey through London on the Regent's Canal. The 1949 "Pusher" tug Bantam IV is moored outside, where there is also room for short term moorings for visitors arriving by boat.

 

Ice is a second theme to the museum and as well as the story of the trade in natural ice, which died out after the first world war, the museum has an exhibition on the history of ice cream, which was popularised by Gatti who made it using the cheap bulk supplies of ice. Visitors can stand where horses used to live, for after the decline of the ice trade the building became a cart depot for ice delivery carts whose horses were stabled on the first floor, reaching it via a horse ramp which may still be seen.

 

The Museum has a programme of evening talks on waterway related topics and other special events throughout the year. There is a museum shop selling a range of canal related souvenirs and a good choice of books on waterway themes.