Summary

A gas street light comprising a late C19 or early C20 Grosvenor-type lantern on a replacement fluted column, probably dating from the second half of the C20.

Description

A gas street light comprising a late C19 or early C20 Grosvenor-type lantern on a replacement fluted column, probably dating from the second half of the C20.

MATERIALS: cast iron lamp post; glazed lantern with copper casing and enamel reflector.

DESCRIPTION: the lamp post consists of a tapering, fluted, 'Eddystone' column topped with a Grosvenor lantern. There is no date inscription and there is a small access door to the base of the column. The lantern is circular, with tapered and curved glazing panels with metal glazing bars, topped with a decorative, perforated crest and an ogee finial to the tent. Inside there is a four-mantle inverted burner and an enamel reflector. The lantern is mounted on a three-legged frog attached to the collar of the column.

History

Gas street lighting first appeared in London in June 1807 when Frederick Albert Winsor gave a public demonstration of gas lights in Pall Mall. The expansion of the railways coinciding with the development of urban gas works in the 1840s facilitated the proliferation of cast iron lamp posts with open-flame gas burners across the capital in the mid-C19. This feature of industrialisation was seen to contribute to London’s international standing and also facilitated the development of modern urban living, increasingly unconstrained by daylight hours.

Electric street lighting was introduced in the 1880s and the gas industry responded by making technological improvements to gas lights, principally the incandescent gas mantle in 1896. This significantly increased the efficacy of gas light, but it was not until the introduction of the inverted gas mantle in 1905 that gas street lights were really able to match the efficiency and brightness of the rival electric carbon filament lamps. In the 1920s and 1930s, many gas lamp posts in Westminster were upgraded with new lanterns fitted with inverted mantles. Gas remained an important source of power for street lighting as late as the mid-C20, and smaller numbers of lamps have continued to run on gas into the early C21.

Maiden Lane was laid out in the 1630s on the Bedford Estate. The land on the south side was initially developed with stables, coach-houses and haylofts but after most of it was granted away in fee farm by the fourth Earl of Bedford, plots were sublet from 1635 for new brick houses and alleyways formed between Maiden Lane and the Strand. Stables along the north side associated with houses on Henrietta Street were generally not replaced with houses until after 1670. Significant rebuilding campaigns occurred in the C18 and C19, with most of the present buildings dating from the late C19.

The lamp post outside 35 Maiden Lane is not dated. An archive photograph dated 1930 indicates that a similar lamp post with a Grosvenor lantern stood in the same location at that time, but the present column appears to be re-casting of the 'Eddystone' model. There are other examples of Eddystone columns around Covent Garden bearing a date of 1910 and the royal cypher of George V, but this column does not have either the cypher or the Westminster City Council crest. There is a small door to the base which also indicates a later date for the column, which was most likely replaced in the second half of the C20. The Grosvenor lantern is older, most likely dating from the late C19 or early C20.

Reasons for Listing

The gas lamp outside 35 Maiden Lane, City of Westminster, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for the quality and design of the Grosvenor lantern, a popular design of gas lantern often used in locations where something of superior aesthetic quality was required.

Historic interest:

* as an example of historic technology that played a significant role in the history of public street lighting.

Group value:

* with other historic lamps along Maiden Lane and as part of a wider group across other key streets in the Covent Garden area.

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