Gas street lamps

[Matty F]

What is the purpose of the two bars underneath gas lamps?

to rest a ladder on perhaps? Or for the little man who lights the lamps to hold on to?

[RubberBiker]

[Matty F]

wind a clock. I'm making a fake gas lamp with 12 volt LEDs. I was intending to having the pole on a pivot so it could be lowered to ground level.

[Bob Martin]

My father was a gas fitter (1925-1976) and I remember when I was a child he used to go out on his bike just after dark and ensure that all street lamps were lit, changing mantles etc as necessary. He did not wind the clocks - that was a day job usually done by an apprentice.

[RubberBiker]

Would you know approximately when the last gas street lighting would have been withdrawn in the UK?

(I know there's some heritage bits, but I mean regular just-not- changed stuff. I can remember what I believe was gas street lighting, but there was also some that had fairly low-wattage electric replacement fitments in original gas-lampposts).

[Rod]

Not quite street lighting, but a number of Southern Region stations had gas lighting at least until the end of the sixties, maybe just into 1970/71.

On very cold nights, they also had coal fires in the waiting rooms...

[Cicero]

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That was the official reason, but many lamp posts carried a length of rope for use as a rather dangerous 'maypole' type swing. The idea was that you would swing around the post, using your feet to kick against the post.

The occasional bruise or abrasion was part of the game and was part of childhood life in those times.

The rope was usually twisted around the post when it was in use as the wicket for a game of cricket.

Cic.

[Andrew Gabriel]

With the roll-out of electric lighting at the turn of the 20th Century, the gas companies started fearing for their future (most consumption was for lighting at that time). In a panic, they signed contracts with a few stations to supply gas for lighting at something like a penney a day for 100 years (I can't actually recall what the figure was, but it's something that effectively became nothing after a few years inflation). This meant that some southern region stations retained gas lamps long after you might think they'd have gone. I though Guildford was one of these, but I can't find any trace on Google. I have the details in a gas lighting book, but I can't find it at the moment.

Other than these strange cases, electric street lighting was used where electricity was available at the time of installation, so just about everything from 1930's, and in many areas, back to 1900 or so. However, street lighting had a typical life of ~50 years at the time (less nowadays), so the last of the gaslamps was in use into the 1950's.

With the switch to Natural Gas in the 1970's, the Gas Board would only pay for conversion of old gas lamps to electric (you couldn't have appliances converted for free unless the manufacturer still existed and produced a conversion kit). However, most gas lamps that survived that long were then treated as items of historic interest and their owners generally arranged for conversion for Natural Gas use.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Andrew Gabriel has brought this to us :

hrough to the early 1960's here. I remember as a kid, when the clock had failed to trigger on time, a judicious kick would make them light up.

[Rod]

I remember a story about Burts Brewery in Ventnor (IoW) having a contract for gas & water - something like £100 a year on a 100 year contract. Never found out if it was urban myth...

IIRC (and I might not) Guildford station changed a bit earlier than Farncombe, Godalming, Milford and the one I best remember, Witley. Suspect they had a gang working their way down the line.

[Dave Pickles]

Most of the area where I lived in 1970 still had gas lighting (West Yorks). As others have commented, it was probably the introduction of natural gas in the early 70s which caused the change to electric lighting, but we'd moved out of the area by then.

[Roger R]

Parts of central London had gas lighting a few tears ago, but havn't been there recently so don't know the present situation. As far as I could tell his was not 'heritage' stuff in gentrified areas or tourist locations, but routine lighting in backstreets where it had always operated.

For a sidestreet It gave as good a light as electric and was possibly cheaper for a cash strapped council than to do complete recabling, new columns and a good deal of disruption. Perhaps they took the view 'don't mend it if it isn't broke'.

Roger R

[Theo Markettos]

There are some private roads in Cambridge that are still gas lit. I'm not sure if that's heritage, or just that the national programme passed them by (being private) and they saw no need to change. Or they couldn't organise it... though the roads themselves are in good condition and the houses quite well-to-do.

Theo

[NT]

I recall one business premises in yorkshire open to the public that was still partly gas lit in 1989.

NT

[<me9]

Same with me, but the urban lights were turned on by the lamplighter. If the pilot was out he would use his pole with a light at the end to re-light. If that failed someone came round with a ladder to fix them or change the mantles. Rural ones had a mechanical time clock.

When they were replaced by electric in the 60s the bulbs were 60w incandescents. The "tower wagon" came round weekly to replace bulbs. We didn't have to report them faulty as is required these days for a fix.

[<me9]

There are one ot two sewer gas lamps still extant in London. These may have been so powered.

There were a lot in Sheffield.

[nightjar]

I worked for one of the Electricty Boards doing the work..Conversions were still going on into 1972 and not all were from gas. There was at least one with oil lamps.

Colin Bignell

[Appelation Controlee]

We couldn't afford rope; we had to climb the lamp post and swing on the bar. etc., ...

[Matty F]

I've just finished making the bar for my lamp. Anyone who swings on it or puts a ladder on it is in for a surprise - it's just plastic. It would probably bend if a large bird sat on it. Fortunately the largest of birds here, the kiwi and the moa, can't fly.

[Adrian C]

There are still gas lights in use in Central london, popular in the Royal parks and Buckingham Palace, and some buildings as well. The clockwork timers have been upgraded to electric though ...

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