Lamp post outside Corpus Christi Church

Summary

A gas street light comprising a column dated 1910, with a Windsor-type lantern installed around 2019.

Reasons for Designation

The lamp post outside Corpus Christi Church, Maiden Lane is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:

* as a good example of an historic gas lighting technology;
* 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 Windsor lantern, one of the most popular and enduring styles of lantern and the first specifically designed to hold an incandescent gas mantle.

Group value:

* with Grade II listed Corpus Christi Church and as part of a group of historic gas lamp posts in 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 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 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.

Maiden Lane was laid out in the 1630s on the Bedford Estate. The land on the south side was initially developed with stables, coach-houses and haylofts but after most of it was granted away in fee farm by the fourth Earl of Bedford, plots were sublet from 1635 for new brick houses and alleyways formed between Maiden Lane and the Strand. Stables along the north side associated with houses on Henrietta Street were generally not replaced with houses until after 1670. Significant rebuilding campaigns occurred in the C18 and C19, with most of the present buildings dating from the late C19.

The lamp post outside Corpus Christi Church was probably installed as part of a planned lighting scheme in 1910 to mark the beginning of King George V's reign. Up until 2019 it had a Rochester-type lantern that was probably installed around 1930. This has since been replaced with a Windsor lantern after the Rochester lantern was damaged by a vehicle collision.

Details

A gas street light comprising a column dated 1910, with a Windsor-type lantern installed around 2019.

MATERIALS: cast iron lamp post; glazed lantern with copper casing and enamel reflector.

DESCRIPTION: the lamp post consists of a tapering, fluted, 'Eddystone' column topped with a Windsor 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. The lantern is square, with four tapered, glass sides with metal glazing bars and a decorative ogee finial to the tent. Inside the lantern is a four-mantle inverted burner and an enamel reflector. The lantern is mounted on a four-legged frog attached to the collar of the column.

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

Websites
Survey of London: Volume 36, Covent Garden: Henrietta Street and Maiden Lane Area, accessed 12 June 2023 from https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol36/pp239-252

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