Lamp post at junction of Carting Lane and Strand, , London

Summary

A gas street light comprising a 'Brompton' style column manufactured by S Pontifex and Company, with a Windsor lantern manufactured by William Sugg and Company.

Description

A gas street light comprising a 'Brompton' style column manufactured by S Pontifex and Company, with a Windsor lantern manufactured by William Sugg and Company, both probably dating from the early C20.

MATERIALS: the column is cast iron and the glazed lantern is metal with an enamelled reflector.

DESCRIPTION: the lamp post comprises an ornate, cast iron, column, of a style which came to be known as 'Brompton' in the 1990s, with a Windsor lantern. The column has a tapered shaft of octagonal section, with acanthus leaf decoration over a base of rectangular section inscribed with the details of the manufacturer: S PONTIFEX & CO/ REGNART BUILDINGS/ EUSTON STREET/ LONDON. There are more decorative ancanthus leaves at the collar, which also has a pair of metal, hanging basket brackets with decorative scrollwork bolted to it, presumably a later addition. The column is surmounted by a Windsor lantern supported on a four-legged frog. This lantern is square, with four tapered, glass sides with metal glazing bars and a decorative ogee finial to the tent. Inside the lantern is a four-mantle burner, an enamel reflector and a Horstmann control clock.

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 facilitated the development of modern urban living, increasingly unconstrained by daylight hours.

Electric street lighting was introduced from 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 streetlights were 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, ‘shadowless’ 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.

The Strand connects Trafalgar Square in the west to Temple Bar in the east. The name comes from the old English word 'strond' meaning the edge of a river; the route originally followed the shallow bank of the wider Thames prior to the construction of the Victoria Embankment 1865-1870. Initially forming part of the Roman route to Silchester, by the Middle Ages the Strand had become the principal route between the City of London and the Palace of Westminster, and several phases of large mansions were constructed in the ensuing centuries. Much of the Strand was rebuilt in the C19 and early C20. The Coal Hole Pub (National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entry 1264458; Grade II) was built 1903-1904 as part of the extension of the Savoy Hotel complex.

Carting Lane is thought to have been a prime access route for carts moving between the Strand and wharfs on the Thames. It was previously called Dirty Lane but it was renamed following the construction of Bazalgette's sewer system in the second half of the C19. Later, Joseph Webb invented the sewer gas destructor lamp to burn off noxious fumes from the sewers and illuminate streets; a rare surviving example of these lamps survives towards the southern end of Carting Lane and is listed at Grade II (NHLE entry 1292448).

The present lamp post adjacent to the Coal Hole Pub is pictured in a similar position in historic photographs from 1923 onwards, but slightly closer to the edge of the roadway. It is understood that it was pushed back slightly to its present location around 1994 when the Strand was widened. The lamp column was manufactured by S Pontifex and Company of Regnart Buildings, Euston Road. This manufacturer appears in trade directories from the late C19 and early C20 as a gasfitter. It is likely that the lamp column was first installed around the time the Coal Hole Pub was constructed from 1903 to 1904. The column supports a Windsor-type lantern; this model was introduced by William Sugg and Company Limited from 1898 and was the first lantern specifically designed to hold a gas mantle instead of an open flame. It soon became one of the most popular and enduring lantern designs with most manufacturers producing a similar model.

Founded in Westminster in 1837, William Sugg and Company became an important supplier of interior and exterior gas lighting and received important commissions such as lighting the exterior of Buckingham Palace in 1901. After initially operating from Marsham Street, for most of its lifetime the company was based at Vincent Works, Regency Street. Lighting manufacture was paused during the First World War while the company produced munitions, but post-war work picked up with the production of conversion sets for pre-war street lanterns, many of which still had upright mantles and required updating to more efficient inverted mantles.

Reasons for Listing

The lamp post at the junction of Carting Lane and the Strand, probably dating from the early C20 is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:

* as a good example of an historic gas lamp post probably dating from the early C20.

Architectural interest:

* for the well-crafted, decorative column in cast iron, which is a good example of historic street furniture;
* for the design of the Windsor lantern, one of the most popular and enduring styles of lantern and the first specifically designed to hold an incandescent gas mantle.

Group value:

* with the Grade II listed Coal Hole Pub, the Grade II listed Sewer Gas lamp standard on Carting Lane, and as part of a wider group of gas lamp posts in the Covent Garden area.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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