Report - Smithfield Cold Store - LONDON - July 09

Els · Jun 19, 2010

The building, constructed during the late Victorian period, was designed to be a sort of giant refrigerator and was apparently the first cold store of it's type built in the UK. A fair amount of the infrastructure is still in place, such as the lifts and pipes used to move the coolant throughout the building and was in use up until the 1970's. In the vaulted section it is still possible to see where the refrigeration equipment would once have been located although most of this has long since gone. An odd solid looking metal construction still remains with a dial that reads amps.

It was once used as a secret laboratory during world war two to investigate the properties of "pyecrete", a mixture of ice and sawdust, which make makes it as strong as concrete. Latterly it was used as a sort of storage area for all sorts of old junk like shelving systems and filling cabinets full of ancient chequebooks, although recently this has been stripped out. Unfortunately water damage has taken it's toll on this building and it was only really possible to access the basement and ground floor level as the stairs are pretty much missing to the higher levels. The building was, for a while, listed, but has since been de-listed.

Tour assembly point