My Dad made a refrigerator in the garden. He dug a big hole, tiled it round with slate tiles and put a lid on.
When I was small my Father had his own business and the flat above it, (in North Shields where the Magistrates Court is now), it was like other property at the time, there were no taps in the house, the water had to be carried upstairs in buckets. They were proper enamel buckets with lids on to keep the flies and the dust out. Nowadays, that would be condemned, but in my day everybody got their water the same way, and you were all right, there was no infection like there is today.
We had no refrigerators, my Dad made my Mother her refrigerator in the garden with slate tiles. He dug a big hole and he tiled it around and put a lid on. We never had anything go sour.
We used to have a box on the outside door with a net over it, it was zinc and it was placed on the wall that had no sun.