Summer is just about here, right? So it’s time to head to the park with some friends, wrap a couple of tinnies in brown paper like it’s the 1920s and grab a delicious ice cream to cool off from the sun. Well if a hankering for a Magnum comes calling and you happen to be in one of London’s Royal Parks, not only will you not have to hide your can of cider but you’ll also be able to buy your ice cream from a converted Rolls-Royce Phantom. Classy.
The ice cream wagon in question operates across London’s green spaces like Hyde Park, specifically around the park’s Italian Gardens and near the entrances to Kensington Palace. For its Rolls-Royce ice cream van, operator Colicci uses a vintage Phantom II limo from 1932 that was previously converted for use as a wedding car, reports Automotive Rhythms.
After a lifetime spent ferrying brides to and from various fancy churches across London, the car was snapped up by the Whitby Morrison Ice Cream Vans company, which is actually one of the largest ice cream van manufacturers in the world. With its new owners, the wedding attire was striped out, the roof was raised and a service window was added.
The finished conversion was first unveiled back in 2015, and it’s been patrolling to paths of London’s Royal Parks in the years since. There, it’s one of two vintage ice cream trucks operated by Colicci, with the second being a fully battery-powered vintage van.
How does this compare to the ice cream van that patrols your streets, does it make the idea of a cheeky Magnum all the more enticing, or do you see it as a means of gentrifying the humble ice cream cone? Let us know in the comments below.