The natural convection and solidification in an annular enclosure has been studied experimentally and theoretically. Here the inner cylinder of the annular enclosure was cooled below the solidification temperature of the water, while the outer cylinder was kept on a uniform temperature well above 0 degrees C. The problem of the unsteady growth of the ice-layer on the inner cold cylindrical surface is studied theoretically and an approximate solution has been obtained for the quasi-steady development of the ice-layer thickness. In addition, it has been found that the influence of the contact layer between the frozen layer and the cold surface is of significant importance for the solidification process. Results are presented and compared between the experimental and the analytical investigation. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.