Summary

A gas street light comprising a 1910 Eddystone column with a Rochester-type lantern installed probably around 1930.

Description

A gas street light comprising a 1910 Eddystone column with a Rochester-type lantern installed probably around 1930.

MATERIALS: cast iron lamp post with a glazed lantern of iron, spun copper and enamelled steel.

DESCRIPTION: the lamp post consists of a tapering, fluted, ‘Eddystone’ column topped with an Upright Rochester lantern. The base of the column has the Westminster City Council crest on one side and on the other, the royal cypher G V R and a date of 1910. Below this, an additional plaque bears the name of the column manufacturer: Revo Tipton. The lantern has a circular drum and rain-shield of copper above an inverted, six-mantle burner in a teardrop-shaped glass enclosure with a drainage hole to its base an enamelled steel reflector. This whole assembly is suspended in an iron cradle with two curved uprights projecting from the clock box. These uprights have lost their original decorative ironwork scrolls typical of interwar Rochester lanterns.

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.

The Smith Square area was laid out in the C18 and is named after Henry Smith who owned the land to the north. At the centre of Smith Square is St John’s Church, 1713-1728 designed by Thomas Archer. To the north, early C18 terraced houses are located on Lord North Street, Cowley Street and Barton Street. Great College Street includes a mixture of C18 houses and early C20 houses and offices. This pattern is also seen on Gayfere Street. Tufton Street includes early and mid-C20 offices. To the south, Dean Trench Street and Dean Bradley Street include examples of mid-C20 houses and offices. Neoclassical mid-C20 offices are also located on Dean Stanley Street. Together, the Smith Square area is a clear illustration of a unified C18 development punctuated by later C20 buildings.

The lamp post outside 7 Cowley Street was probably installed a part of a linked lighting scheme that included additional gas lamps on Cowley Street as well as those on Barton Street and Great College Street. In 1910, street lighting was improved marking the beginning of King George V’s reign. The Upright Rochester-type lantern was probably installed around 1930 to replace an earlier, outdated lantern. Rochester lanterns were the 'storm-proof' version of a series of lanterns introduced from the early C20 and went on to become one of the most popular designs of shadowless lanterns.

Reasons for Listing

The lamp post outside 7 Cowley Street, probably dating from the early C20, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

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 Rochester-style lantern, a popular and enduring style of lantern.

Historic interest:

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

Group value:

* as part of an adjacent set of historic lamp posts on Barton Street and Cowley Street and a wider group across other key streets within the Smith Square area.

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