Victorian ice house under drive?

[Icehousemaybe]

Name changed as this is very outing.

We have just started having an extension built and there is a domed brick built structure under the drive. From some highly scientific poking through a hole with long sticks it is about 2m wide and 2-3m deep. Picture isn’t great as it is mostly covered but the builders think an ice house, they’ve never seen one before. It is likely to be covered back up and an extra beam put in for wall support but…

has anyone seen anything similar?
any other ideas what it could be?

the house is Victorian maybe 1870s and there was a dairy on the road so I’m wondering if that was us. We are london / Kent boundaries.

Maybe a cesspit from before houses were connected to a sewer.
Could be an icehouse though.

Thanks @OttersAreMySpiritAnimal it may be. Since I posted I’ve been told there is water in it, so it could be an odd shaped well I guess.

We have a domed chamber in the ground in our garden. The original house was victorian. Locals tell us it was a spring fed well chamber thing

Unless it’s a very grand house, OP, an ice house seems quite unlikely to me. Would there even have been a body of water as a source of ice nearby?

Was it ever a funeral home? Or were there lots of deaths in a short space of time in the area?

How interesting! There was an ice house in the grounds of my secondary school, but it was square/rectangular, with low walls and a pitched roof that went almost down to the ground (it was built against a slope).

I think you should speak to your local history society about it.

@Boligrafo yes there is a lake nearish but I think it would have been private in Victorian times. It’s not a grand house, no, detached cottage really but it had a reasonable plot which got split in the 70s.

No! I hope not anyway… heavily bombed in ww2 but it looks older

It could be something like that thanks. How big is your chamber? I’ve been googling wells and not found anything similar.

Sounds like a victorian era underground cistern.

You should contact your council or English heritage. You must not destroy it. Our friends had an ice house, they needed to preserve it. They needed to fill it with specific pea shingle stones
If it’s a well, need specific instruction on that - if might be on old council maps or plans. Our library keeps historic records, cataloged by street name.

Most likely to be a cistern - you find them quite often in 19th century homes, they collected rain water that could be used for washing in the scullery. Ice houses were generally found in the grounds of grand country houses.

Thanks everyone, council building control are coming today so if there is something specific we have to do I guess we’ll find out. I’ll be googling Victorian cisterns on my way to work this morning. The local archives are in a library not far away so may visit next week.

Unlikely to be an ice house in the environment you describe OP, I have only seen ice houses at stately types of homes. Hope it doesn’t delay your plans too much.

We've got a brick lined chamber under the drive behind our house. It collects surface water from gutters etc. I think it may have had a pump at one time to water the huge garden. Built 1901.
BTW ours does have a square manhole cover.

Friends ice house was in East London, larger house but defo on a London street. Ice house was just outside back of house where they had planned an extension.

How much value does an ice house add to your property vs. an underground cess pit ?

I think @TeaAndStrumpets @SabrinaThwaite and @MeandBobbyMcGoo have it right, it is most likely a rainwater cistern so thank you. I found various descriptions and pictures online which look similar and they are clearly way more common than ice houses :-). It’s near the old kitchen area too which makes sense for washing water.

Building control were ok with a couple of steels across that part of the foundations. We know where it is and could access it if needed as the bulk of it is still under the drive. So not destroyed but will be covered again tomorrow and work continues on schedule. Phew.

My sister had similar, although larger: brick built, domed roof, perhaps 4x4x4m and they were told it was for water that was then pumped into the house

From the top, it’s maybe 2m x 1m. Must be a good 3m deep though