Summary

A gas street light comprising a Brompton-style column with a Grosvenor-style lantern, probably dating from the early to mid-C20.

Description

A gas street light comprising a Brompton column with a Grosvenor-type lantern, probably dating from the early to mid-C20.

MATERIALS: cast iron lamp post with a glazed lantern of iron, spun copper and enamelled steel. The decorative fret around the top of the lantern is probably cast lead.

DESCRIPTION: the lamp post consists of a tapering ‘Brompton’ column with agapanthus leaves at the base and top and topped with a Grosvenor lantern. The base of the column has an oval plaque number 6477. The lantern is circular, with tapered and curved glazing panels with metal glazing bars, topped with a decorative, perforated fret and an ogee finial to the tent. Inside there is a six-mantle inverted burner with a Horstmann 14 day clockwork time controller and a steel 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 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 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.

Developed on the site of Market Gardens, Maunsel Street (originally New Street) was built in the 1820s possibly by Paul Storr, a silversmith and speculative developer. In the mid-to-late C19, the terraced houses were inhabited by artisans and tradesmen. By the 1911 census, the street’s demographic had evolved to include professionals such as policemen and chauffeurs.

Reasons for Listing

The lamp post outside Astral House, Maunsel Street, probably dating from the early C20, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:

* as a good example of a 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 Grosvenor-style lantern, a popular and enduring style of lantern.

Group value:

* with early-C19 buildings and historic lamp posts on Maunsel Street and as part of a wider group of historic lamp posts in the City of Westminster.

Recommended Books

• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)