Lamp post outside 11-14 Hanover Place

Lamp post outside 11-14 Hanover Place, London, WC2E 9JP

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1488550
Date first listed:: 10-Oct-2024
List Entry Name:: Lamp post outside 11-14 Hanover Place
Statutory Address:: Lamp post outside 11-14 Hanover Place, London, WC2E 9JP

User submitted image — Uploaded by Chris Watkins This photo may not represent the current condition of the site. Almost 350,000 images and stories have been added to the Missing Pieces Project so far. Share your story.
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1488550
Date first listed:: 10-Oct-2024
List Entry Name:: Lamp post outside 11-14 Hanover Place
Statutory Address 1:: Lamp post outside 11-14 Hanover Place, London, WC2E 9JP

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: Lamp post outside 11-14 Hanover Place, London, WC2E 9JP

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: City of Westminster (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ3032781052

Summary

A gas lamp post originally installed in the early C20 comprising a cast iron column replaced between 1968 and 1982 and a Grosvenor lantern, probably dating from the first half of the C20.

Reasons for Designation

The lamp post outside 11-14 Hanover Place 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 quality and design of the Grosvenor lantern, a popular design of gas lantern often used in locations where something of superior aesthetic quality was required.

Historic interest:

* as an example of historic technology that played a significant role in the history of public street lighting.

Group value:

* as part of a group of historic lamps around the Covent Garden area.

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, ‘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.

Hanover Place first appears on William Morgan's map of 1682 as Queen's Head Alley, probably named after a nearby public house. It was later renamed Phoenix Alley, possibly after the Phoenix Theatre on Drury Lane. In 1846 it was renamed Hanover Court and became known as Hanover Place by the 1940s. It is not known when the alley was first lit by gas, but by the mid-C20 it had lamp posts at both ends and midway outside numbers 11-14.

A photograph of Hanover Place taken from Floral Street and dated 1968 (London Picture Archive record number 137050) shows a 1910 lamp post with a later Rochester lantern at the south entrance to Hanover Place, and also appears to show a lamp post of a different design in the position of the present lamp post outside numbers 11-14. The present lamp post is clearly visible in photographs dated 1982 onwards. The present lamp post stands proud of the pavement with the arches in the bottom of the pedestal visible; these are normally hidden beneath the ground. This, along with the historic photographs, suggests that the present lamp post was installed between 1968 and 1982 to replace the original. It is not clear whether the lantern was also replaced at the same time, but the present Grosvenor lantern appears to date from the early C20. According to historic Sugg catalogues, Grosvenor lanterns were often specified for locations where something of superior aesthetic quality to a standard square lantern was desirable.

Details

A gas lamp post comprising a cast iron column and a Grosvenor lantern, probably dating from the early C20.

MATERIALS: a cast iron column with a glazed, metal lantern with an enamel reflector.

DESCRIPTION: the lamp post is positioned centrally in Hanover Place, directly in front of numbers 11-14. It has an ornate, cast iron column, which is approximately three metres tall, with acanthus leaf decoration to the top and bottom of the shaft, which is slighty tapered and of octagonal section. The shaft rises from a large, square pedestal with chamfered corners and an applied registration plaque bearing the number 7522. At the top of the shaft a three-legged frog supports a Grosvenor lantern, which is circular, with tapered and curved glazing panels and metal glazing bars. The lantern is topped with a decorative, perforated fret and an ogee finial to the tent. Inside there is a four-mantle burner, and enamel reflector, a Horstmann 14-day control clock and a Comet igniter.

Sources

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

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.