ICECREAM

ICE CREAM

Belgravia

In 2003 it was reported that the Motcomb Street branch of Waitrose in Belgravia was the only supermarket in the U.K. that was regularly door-stepped by paparazzi. Rich people eat fresh food. The shop was said to have only one freezer cabinet. This stocked only one type of food - ice cream.

Location: 27 Motcomb Street, SW1X 8GG (red, turquoise)

Website: www.waitrose.com/bf_home/bf/665l

Carpigiani U.K.

The Carpigiani ice cream dispenser was developed by the Carpigiani brothers of Bologna in the 1940s. Initially, it was known as the auto gelaria. McDonald's uses Carpigiani machines.

Website: www.carpigiani.co.uk

Flakes

Cadbury s made the flake in the 1930s for use in ice cream.

There is a possibility that the name 99 derived from the number of the Italian king s bodyguard and thus referred to the lite.

Website: www.cadbury.co.uk/products/cadbury-flake-11309

Foubert s

Fouberts is a West London ice cream business. Its products are delicious.

Location: 17 Kensington High Street, W8 5NP (purple, brown)

2 Turnham Green Terrace, Chiswick, W4 1QP

Website: www.fouberts.co.uk

Hokey

Hokey was an ice cream that was made by the Assenheim family. It inspired the rhyme Hokey pokey a penny a lump. That's the stuff to make you jump.

Lyons Maid

Lyons started to produce ice cream in its Cadby Hall factory in the mid-1890s. It was made next door to the fish department which had a ready supply of ice. By the mid-1920s Lyons had the largest ice cream factory in Europe.

During the Second World War ice cream production was banned. In the post-war era J. Lyons began to make ice cream again. At the time, milk and sugar were in short supply.

There is an urban legend that Margaret Thatcher played a role in developing soft serve ice cream. She did not. It had been created in the United States. However, she did play a very junior role in authoring a research paper into overrun - the technique by which air can be used to bulk up ice cream and thus alter its mouthfeel.

In 1955 production moved to a purpose-built plant on the company's Greenford site. In the late 1960s the facility was expanded so that the company could meet the growing demand for handheld ice cream. The brand was promoted with a logo that consisted of three dancing children in cartoon form.

Nestl acquired the Lyons Maid brand in 1992. It sold it on in 2003.

Location: Lyon Way Industrial Estate, Lyon Way, Greenford, UB6 0BN

Cadby Hall, 66 Hammersmith Road, W14 8RH. Gone. (orange, red)

See Also: FOOD BRANDS J. Lyons

Marine Ices

Gaetano Mansi arrived in Britain from Italy in 1898. In 1928 he opened a grocery shop in Drummond Street, Euston. He disliked throwing away unsold fruit and so used it to make sorbet. He soon became aware that customers were coming to the shop just to buy the ices. In 1931 he opened Mansi's Caf on the present-day site of Marines Ices. Following the Second World War the business assumed its present name. In 1963 the firm started acting as a wholesaler of ice cream. Its inaugural customer was the first Pizza Express, which had just opened in Wardour Street.

Location: 61 Chalk Farm Road, NW1 8AN (blue, yellow)

Website: www.marineices.co.uk

Agnes Marshall

Agnes Marshall (1855-1905) - the Queen of Ices.

In 1883 she and her husband took over the Mortimer Street Cookery School. It came to specialise in ices. She used liquid nitrogen.

Location: 32 Mortimer Street, W1W 7RE (blue, turquoise)

Nardulli

Location: 29 The Pavement, Clapham, SW4 0JE

Website: www.nardulli.co.uk

Street Vendors

Hokey pokey became the generic street cry of Italian street vendors who worked in poor areas.¹

¹. During the winter many of them switched to selling roast chestnuts.

Health Hazard

Ice cream became of concern to local government. In Britain milk was not pasteurised until the 1940s. Frequently, it was adulterated. A penny lick was a small portion that was served in a glass and eaten by being licked out. Once the ice cream had been eaten the glass would be returned to the vendor. Usually, it was only cleaned in a perfunctory so that it might pose a public health hazard. In 1901 a group of scientists concluded that it incontrovertibly did. The practice was banned by the government. London County Council also made illegal to manufacture ice cream in sitting rooms or rooms that contained a lavatory.

Gérard Tissain

Gérard Tissain made ice cream for the court of King Charles I. It has been claimed that the king paid the French chef 20 a year to keep the information to himself. Following the monarch's execution, a group of nobles are supposed to have clubbed together and bought the secret from the man.

Location: Whitehall, SW1A 2ER (purple, brown)

Uncle Doovy

Uncle Doovy is a kosher ice cream business.

Website: https://uncledoovy.co.uk

Van Fleets

There were three large ice cream van fleets ToniBell (pink, lit cow at night), My Softy, and Mr Whippy.

It is a tradition that adults tell children that when the ice cream van bell chimes sound it means that the seller has no ice cream left.

A decline was caused first by the supermarkets choosing to sell ice cream and then McDonald's decision to use Carpigiani ice cream dispensers.

See Also: FOLK TRADITIONS

ToniBell

Tonibell put vans onto the street in the mid-1950s.

In 1970s adopted bright pink colouring for the vans.

At its peak ToniBell was operating 500 vans from twenty depots.

The business now operates principally in Kent, Surrey, and Essex.

Website: www.tonibell99.co.uk

Wall's

Walls was a sausage company that had been founded in the 18^thC. Sausage sales would slump during the summer. In 1903 Wall's established a factory in Battersea. A decade later it started manufacturing ice cream during its quiet time of year. In 1920 the Wall family sold the company to William Lever in his private capacity. Two years later it was acquired by Lever Brothers. Very few shops had refrigerators, therefore, the ice cream was sold from tricycles that bore the slogan Stop me and buy one. In the mid-to-late 1920s the Wall's sales exploded. By the 1930s it had over 8000 vendors working from 150 depots across Britain. During the Second World War the tricycles were requisitioned. A number of the ingredients were rationed after the peace. In the 1960s vans started to be used.

Location: 113 Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6HJ. Where the sausages were sold from in the 19^thC. (red, grey)

The Verdean, 36 The Drive, Acton, W3 6AA. The site of Wall's The Friary factory.

See Also: FOOD BRANDS Unilever

Website: www.wallsicecream.com

David Backhouse 2024