Carlo Gatti

He is credited with first making ice cream available to the general public and he then moved into the music hall business.

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

He was probably born in Marogno, a village within the comune of Dongio in the impoverished and sparsely populated Blenio District , where he also ended his days.

Carlo had moved to London from Paris by 1847 at the latest, and initially lived in the Italian community in Clerkenwell.

Also in 1851, Gatti opened a stand in Hungerford Market, near Charing Cross, to sell confectionery and cakes, hot coffee, cold soft drinks and ice cream.,[2] A portion of ice cream was sold for one penny served in a shell, perhaps the origin of the penny lick.

In 1839 Carlo was married to Maria Marioni, by his eldest brother Giacomo, the priest at Castro.

[6] According to food writer Elizabeth David, 'the ice business that he had set up endured and continued to expand for almost a century'.