Summary
A pair of cast iron lamp posts of 1848 design with late C20 lamps, sited outside a Grade II-listed terrace of town houses.
Reasons for Designation
The two lamp posts outside 3-25 Swan Road are listed for the following principal reasons:
* Decorative design: a relatively early design of Victorian mass-produced functional, yet decorative street furniture;
* Historical interest: as a marker of Harrogate’s C19 civic pride, the introduction of street lighting from 1848 being a particular focus of the town’s early local authority;
* Group value: particularly with the adjacent Grade II-listed crescent of Victorian town houses, but also with other listed buildings along Swan Road.
History
Harrogate’s first 97 street lamps were installed by the Harrogate Gas Company in 1848 on behalf of the Improvement Commissioners (established in 1841, the forerunner of Harrogate’s local council), with further street lamps added in subsequent years. Historical records show that the provision of street lighting in the mid-C19 was a particular focus for the town’s early local authority, prompting much controversy in the years around 1850. Victorian photographs of lamp posts on Promenade Square, Chapel Street, at Christ Church and the Crown Hotel (all locations for lamp posts installed in 1848) show posts matching the design of the posts set outside 3-25 Swan Road. The lanterns were originally lit with open gas flames, these lanterns being replaced after 1898 with smaller ‘Windsor’ style lanterns with more efficient gas mantles, as shown in early C20 photographs. In the late 1960s the lanterns were replaced with electric lamps mounted on swan neck fittings rising from switch boxes set above the ladder rests.
Details
Pair of former gas lamp posts, 1848 design with late C20 lamps.
Sources
Books and journals
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
The listed buildings are shown coloured blue on the attached map. Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’), structures attached to or within the curtilage of the listed building (save those coloured blue on the map) are not to be treated as part of the listed building for the purposes of the Act.
End of official list entry
