Carlo Gatti was a Swiss

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

 in the Victorian era

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

. He came to England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in 1847, where he established restaurants and an ice importing business. He is credited with first making ice cream

Ice cream

Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...

 available to the general public. He moved into music hall

Music hall

Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...

s. He returned to Switzerland in 1871, leaving his businesses in the hands of members of his family. He died a millionaire.

Gatti originated in Canton Ticino, the main Italian-speaking area of Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

. He was probably born in Marogno, a village within the then commune of Dongio

Dongio

Dongio is a village and former municipality in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland.It was first recorded in year 1188 as Deuci.The municipality also contained the villages Marogno and Motto. It had 532 inhabitants in 1682, which decreased to 391 in 1808...

, where he also ended his days. He was the youngest of a family of six, his parents being Stefano and Apollonia. In 1839 Carlo was married to Maria Marioni, by his eldest brother Giacomo, the priest at Castro

Castro, Ticino

Castro is a village and former municipality in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland.It was first recorded in year 1200 as Castri.It had 68 inhabitants in 1567, which increased to 114 in 1808 and 129 in 1850. It then decreased to 97 in 1900, 81 in 1950 and 62 in 1970...

.

Carlo had moved to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 by 1847 at the latest, and lived in the Italian community in Holborn

Holborn

Holborn is an area of Central London. Holborn is also the name of the area's principal east-west street, running as High Holborn from St Giles's High Street to Gray's Inn Road and then on to Holborn Viaduct...

. At first, he ran a stall selling waffle

Waffle

A waffle is a batter- or dough-based cake cooked in a waffle iron patterned to give a distinctive and characteristic shape. There are many variations based on the type and shape of the iron and the recipe used....

s and chestnut

Chestnut

Chestnut , some species called chinkapin or chinquapin, is a genus of eight or nine species of deciduous trees and shrubs in the beech family Fagaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce.-Species:The chestnut belongs to the...

s. In 1849, he began to run a café

Café

A café , also spelled cafe, in most countries refers to an establishment which focuses on serving coffee, like an American coffeehouse. In the United States, it may refer to an informal restaurant, offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches...

 and restaurant

Restaurant

A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...

 with partners. They specialised in selling chocolate

Chocolate

Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...

 and ice cream. They put a chocolate-making machine in the window to attract business, and took ice for the ice cream from Regent's Canal

Regent's Canal

Regent's Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London, England. It provides a link from the Paddington arm of the Grand Union Canal, just north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin and the River Thames in east London....

 under a contract with the Regent's Canal Company. Their shop was the first to sell ice cream to the public; previously, ice cream was an expensive treat confined to rich people with access to an ice house.

Gatti exhibited his chocolate-making machine, imported from France, at the Great Exhibition in 1851. Also in 1851, Gatti opened a stand in Hungerford Market

Hungerford Market

Hungerford Market was a market in London, near Charing Cross on the Strand, housed in two different buildings on the same site from around 1680 to 1862. The first market was held from about 1680 in a London house of the Hungerford family. This building became dilapidated, and was replaced by a...

, near Charing Cross

Charing Cross

Charing Cross denotes the junction of Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in central London, England. It is named after the now demolished Eleanor cross that stood there, in what was once the hamlet of Charing. The site of the cross is now occupied by an equestrian...

, to sell pastries and ice cream. A portion of ice cream was sold for one penny served in a shell, perhaps the origin of the penny lick

Penny lick

A penny lick was a small glass for serving ice cream from the mid nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Street vendors would sell the contents of the glass for one penny. The glass was usually made with a thick glass base and a shallow depression on top in which the ice cream was placed...

.

Gatti built a large "ice well" capable of storing tons of ice in 1857. His ice house, near King's Cross

Kings Cross, London

King's Cross is an area of London partly in the London Borough of Camden and partly in the London Borough of Islington. It is an inner-city district located 2.5 miles north of Charing Cross. The area formerly had a reputation for being a red light district and run-down. However, rapid regeneration...

, is now the London Canal Museum

London Canal Museum

London Canal Museum in the King's Cross area of London, England, is a regional museum that displays information about the history of London's canals.- History :...

. He began importing ice from Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 from around 1860, shipping the ice from Norway, up the Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

 and by canal to his ice house. He built a second ice well in around 1862, and became the largest ice importer in London. He began to run a fleet of delivery carts, supplying ice for domestic icebox

Icebox

An icebox is a compact non-mechanical refrigerator which was a common kitchen appliance before the development of safe powered refrigeration devices.- Design :...

es.

Hungerford Market was damaged when the adjoining Hungerford Hall

Hungerford Hall

Hungerford Hall was a lecture theatre built beside Hungerford Market near Charing Cross in London in 1851. It was used for public entertainments, including demonstrations of magic, mesmerism and optical illusions. It burned down in 1854, badly damaging the adjoining Hungerford...

 burned down in 1854, but Gatti was insured, and used the proceeds to build a music hall, known as Gatti's, which opened in 1857. He sold the music hall to South Eastern Railway

South Eastern Railway (UK)

The South Eastern Railway was a railway company in south-eastern England from 1836 until 1922. The company was formed to construct a route from London to Dover. Branch lines were later opened to Tunbridge Wells, Hastings, Canterbury and other places in Kent...

 in 1862, and the site became Charing Cross railway station

Charing Cross railway station

Charing Cross railway station, also known as London Charing Cross, is a central London railway terminus in the City of Westminster, England. It is one of 18 stations managed by Network Rail, and trains serving it are operated by Southeastern...

.

With the proceeds from selling his first music hall, Gatti acquired a restaurant in Westminster Bridge Road

Westminster Bridge Road

Westminster Bridge Road is a short, but busy, road in London, England. It runs on an east-west axis and passes through the boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark....

, opposite The Canterbury music hall. He converted the restaurant into a second Gatti's music hall, known as "Gatti's-in-the-Road", in 1865. It later became a cinema. The building was badly damaged in the Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, and was demolished in 1950.

In 1867, he acquired a public house

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

 in Villiers Street

Villiers Street

Villiers Street is a street in London connecting The Strand with The Embankment. It was built by Nicholas Bourbon in the 1670s on the site of York House, the property of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham whose name the street commemorates...

 named "The Arches", under the arches of the elevated railway line leading to Charing Cross station. He opened it as another music hall, known as "Gatti's-in-The-Arches

Charing Cross Music Hall

The Charing Cross Music Hall was a music hall established beneath the Arches of Charing Cross railway station in 1866 by brothers, Giovanni and Carlo Gatti to replace the former Hungerford Hall...

".

Members of his family were involved in his businesses, and he spent most of his time in Switzerland after 1871. He married a second wife, aged only 23. He is buried in Switzerland.

His family continued to operate the music hall, known for a period after Gatti's death the Hungerford or Gatti's Hungerford Palace of Varieties. It became a cinema in 1910, and the Players' Theatre

Players' Theatre

The Players' Theatre was a theatre in London as well as a theatre club for music hall in the style of the BBC programme "The Good Old Days".-Origins:...

 in 1946.

External links

• Gatti's music halls
• London Canal Museum
• Bill posters from Gatti's Music Hall, from the British Library
  British Library
  The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...