Gas lighting in the streets on a working class estate in the early 1900s

An old gas street lamp in the early 1900s with a policeman standing underneath

A gas street lamp at the corner of Bulwer Road on the Huxley Estate in Edmonton, north London in the early 1900s. A detail from a larger photograph on the Silver Street page.

When I was a child in the early 1900s, the streets were lit by gaslight. Every evening the lamplighter used to come along on his bicycle to light them, carrying his ladder on his shoulder. It was a wooden ladder which must have been very heavy, unlike the aluminium ones of later years. I often wonder now how long it took him to do his rounds and how large his rounds were.

Lamplighter in early 1900s England on his ladder lighting the gas of a streetlamp.

The lamplighter in the early 1900s climbing his wooden ladder to light a street lamp. Sketch by Emily Cryer showing the metal arm just below the glass case for the lamplighter to lean his ladder.

The gas mantles were like those used in houses but probably bigger, or there may have been more than one of them. I never saw them closely.

We children used the lamp posts as winning posts in some of our outdoor street games.

The light from the gas street lamps was greenish, eerie and flickering. Both my father and I on separate occasions thought we saw a woman ghost in the front bedroom, but I didn't want to think of such things and put it down to the eeriness of the gas lighting.

The gas street lamps gave out a circle of light which didn't spread far. In between the lamp posts was dark.

Peter Johnson

Lamplighter, early to mid 1900s England, lighting a pilot light streetlamp by turning on the gas with a pole.

Later in the century, the gas street lamps had a pilot light. The lamplighter still went round the streets on his bicycle, but he used a wooden pole to turn on the gas. Sketch by Emily Cryer.

Even as late as World War Two and for a period afterwards I remember street lights running on gas. Every evening just before it got dark a man on a bicycle came to turn on the lamps. He arrived with one hand holding a wooden pole over his shoulder the other hand steering the bicycle. He would stop at each lamp post and reach up with his pole to turn on the gas. He would insert the pole into the vent at the bottom of the glass case and push a lever into the 'on' position. (Some lamps had a chain instead of a lever.) Then the pilot light lit the gas making the mantle glow.

Just after the war clockwork timers started being installed. Then the light came on automatically every evening and went off automatically every morning. Every so often a man with a ladder would visit each lamp to wind up the clockwork mechanism.

Also every so often during the day a man came round with a ladder to service the lamps or to repair the panes of glass that often got broken. Council men would also come round to paint the lamp posts which were made of cast iron.

Peter Johnson

A typical privately-owned gas lamp suspended outside, over a shop window and contributing to the illumination of the streets in the early 1900s (1900's).

Privately owned lamp outside a shop. Detail from a photograph in Farnham Museum.

Gas lamp outside a London shop in the 1940s, a left-over from former times

Gas lamp outside Eustances greengrocers shop in the early 1900s. Photo courtesy of Vic Nunn.

Shops had heir own gas lamps outside in the street, presumably to light window displays in the evenings and in winter and to give a welcoming feel. These privately-owned gas lamps would also have contributed to the general light on the streets.

Typical old gas lamp, as hung outside public houses in the UK Privately owned gas lamps were used outside pubs. This photo shows the lamp that used to be outside the Old Bull pub in Silver Street. It has now been repositioned in a similar position outside the new Bull pub, although it is now electric. When I asked the landlord why he had kept the lamp, he said that such lamps were a historical feature of public houses.

When I asked the landlord why, he said that these lamps were a historical feature of public houses.

Cliff Raven

Gas lighting in the streets on a working class estate in the early 1900s

This website Join me in the 1900s is also known as Join me in the 1900's and is © Pat Cryer.