An experimental and numerical study has been made of transient natural convection of water freezing in a cube-shaped cavity. The effect of the heat transfer through the side walls is studied in two configurations: with the cavity surrounded by air and with the cavity immersed in an external water bath of constant temperature. The experimental data for the velocity and temperature fields are obtained using liquid crystal tracers. The transient development of the ice/water interface is measured. The collected data are used as an experimental benchmark and compared with numerical results obtained from a Finite-difference code with boundary fitted grid generation. The computational model has been adopted to simulate as closely as possible the physical experiment. Hence, fully variable fluid properties are implemented in the code, and, to improve modelling of the thermal boundary conditions, the energy equation is also solved inside the bounding walls. Although the general behaviour of the calculated ice front and its volume matches observations, several details of the flow structure do not. Observed discrepancies between experimental and numerical results indicate the necessity of verifying and improving the usual assumptions for modelling ice formation.