Ice house, Madras

Photograph of the ice house at Madras (Chennai), Tamil Nadu, taken by Frederick Fiebig in c.1851. The photograph is one of a series of hand-coloured salt prints. The ice house stood beside the road on the foreshore next to Marina Beach. It is a handsome circular building with ionic pilasters and a pineapple finial. The ice house was erected in 1842 to store large blocks of ice which were imported from America by the Tudor Ice Co., formed in 1840. Following the construction of local ice factories it was later converted into a home for Brahmin widows and is now a hostel for the Lady Willingdon Training College, known as Vivekananda House.