Lamp post opposite Theatre Royal, outside 29 Russell Street

Summary

A gas street light comprising a column dated 1910, with an upright Rochester lantern manufactured by William Sugg and Company Limited, probably around 1930.

Reasons for Designation

The lamp post opposite Theatre Royal, outside 29 Russell Street, with a 1910 column and an inter-war lantern, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:

* as a good example of an historic lamp column with a later, improved lantern, illustrating the evolution of gas lighting technology in the first half of the C20;
* as one of a number of lamp posts originally installed around Covent Garden in 1910 to mark the beginning of George V's reign.

Architectural interest:

* for the well-crafted, decorative column in cast iron, which is a good example of early C20 street furniture;
* for the design of the interwar upright Rochester lantern, one of the most popular and enduring designs of inverted, shadowless lamps of the C20.

Group value:

* with other historic lamp posts on Russell Street and Catherine Street.

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 in 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, '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 western end of Russell Street, located within the parish of St Paul, Covent Garden, was built under leases granted in 1631 and 1632 and was fully inhabited by about 1637. It was named after the Russell family, including the Earls and Dukes of Bedford and became a popular street due to its proximity to the Drury Lane Theatre, the Covent Garden Piazza and later the Theatre Royal, built around 1732.

The northern side of Russell Street was largely redeveloped in the early C20. Fortune Theatre by E. Schaufelberg was designed 1922-1924. The former Telephone Exchange in front of which the lamp post is located was designed by JH Markham, a Lutyens pupil, at the Office of Works in 1925-1927.

The lamp post outside 29 Russell Street was probably installed as part of a planned lighting scheme in 1910 to mark the beginning of King George V's reign. The upright Rochester-type lantern was supplied by William Sugg and Company, probably 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. William Sugg and Company sold large numbers for use in street lighting, railway stations and goods yards.

Founded in Westminster in 1837 and operating out of the Vincent Works on Marsham Street, the 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. 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.

Details

A gas street light comprising a column dated 1910, with an upright Rochester lantern manufactured by William Sugg and Company Limited, 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 column, identified as model 1275 in the William Sugg catalogue and known as the 'Eddystone', with an upright Rochester lantern. The base of the column has the Westminster City Council crest embossed on one side and a registration plaque bearing number 7833. On the other side is the royal cypher G V R and a date of 1910.

The lantern has a circular, weatherproof chimney above an inverted, six-mantle burner in a teardrop-shaped glass enclosure with a drainage hole to its base. The main body is supported on a pair of upright arms, which project at right-angles from the cast iron control clock box and pass the horizontal enamelled steel reflector to provide the gas supply to the chimney. These arms retain their original decorative ironwork scrolls, which were typical of interwar Rochester lanterns.

Sources

Books and journals
Pollard, N E, A Short History of Public Lighting in the City of Westminster in IPLE Lighting Journal, Vol. -, (March 1984), 53-58

Websites
Survey of London: Volume 35, the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, accessed 24 May 2023 from https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol35/pp30-39
Survey of London: Volume 36, Covent Garden: Bow Street and Russell Street Area, accessed 24 May 2023 from https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol36/pp192-195

Other
'One Hundred Years' a brochure produced to commemorate the centenary of William Sugg & Company (1937) accessed 8 June 2023 from https://williamsugghistory.co.uk/

End of official list entry

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