On a quiet street lined with 18th-century Georgian houses behind Westminster Abbey, Garry Usher winds the mechanical clock on a gas street lamp and gives the glass globe a polish.
He steps down off his ladder and looks up with satisfaction as the soft, warm light lifts the dark winter evening, and moves on down the street.
Despite nationwide budget cuts that have reduced local services and seen streetlights dimmed to save money, 1,500 gas lamps in London are still maintained by hand.
Photo: AFP
They are the last of tens of thousands of lamps that were first introduced in the capital 200 years ago, a marvel of modern technology that brought life to the once dark and dangerous streets.
While many London residents are oblivious to their presence, the lamps are protected by local authorities as a piece of history — and new ones are even being installed.
“They’re lovely. It’s a fantastic form of lighting, not as harsh as electric,” Usher said as he went on his rounds.
The 50-year-old, an engineer with the British Gas energy firm, used to maintain central heating, but began working on the lamps because it gave him Saturdays off to play rugby union.
Now he leads a team involving four other “lamplighters” who maintain the lamps, half of which still have mechanical clocks that need winding every 14 days.
The others run on electrical timers, which need their batteries changed every six months, while the various parts also need checking regularly.
“You’re touching history everywhere you go — it’s a privileged job,” Usher said.
Gas lamps became common across Europe in the mid-19th century. Before that, walking the streets at night was a dangerous business.
In London, you could pay a “link boy” a farthing to guide your way with a candle, but there was always a risk he might rob you blind.
Initial reaction to the first demonstration of gas lights in 1807 — the first on any street in the world — was mixed, not least because the early gas lines could be dangerous and there was the odd explosion.
However, when King George IV ordered their widespread introduction in 1814, they quickly caught on.
Some lamps served a dual purpose of lighting the streets and clearing the smells from London’s underground sewers.
The Webb Sewer lamp drew up gases from the sewers down below and burnt it off. One such functioning lamp still exists, next to the Savoy Hotel near the River Thames.
As late as the 1970s, many gas lamps in London were still lit by hand each evening and extinguished every morning.
Now they all have a permanent pilot light burning and the mains gas flows on a timer, heating up the “mantles” — small ceramic meshes resembling bulbs, that become white hot and give off a glowing light.
They lend a magical quality to the streets, and in St James’ Park — near Buckingham Palace — they are the only source of light, offering a rare glimpse into what it might have looked like in Dickensian times.
The lamps survived the arrival of electricity and the Blitz bombings in World War II, and these days the biggest threat is the traffic.
Originally designed to stand taller than a horse and cart, many have been extended upward to stay out of the way of trucks, although some still get hit and must be repaired.
However, they are not just about history.
A number of new gas lamps have been installed in recent years, including one requested by the architect behind the new Apple store in Covent Garden.
“There’s no chance of these lamps disappearing,” British Gas operations manager Iain Bell said. “If anything, we’re getting more calls to install them.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including