Refrigeration and freezing
In the past it was very difficult to keep perishable food cool. Very rich people had underground ice houses. Ice was carried into these from lakes and ponds during winter. In Victorian times ice from other countries was shipped to Britain. This could be put into ice boxes but would melt if they were opened too often. Although refrigerators were invented in America in the late1800s, very few families in Britain owned them until after the Second World War.
This is a picture of goods being unloaded at the docks. By the 1930s, Sainsbury’s was importing frozen lamb from New Zealand. It was shipped frozen and kept in cold storage in their depot in London. As neither their lorries nor their stores had the means to keep it frozen it was sold defrosted.
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