Event    From 28/1/1807 

first gas-lit street in the world

Categories: Engineering, Transport

The first public street lighting with gas was demonstrated in Pall Mall by Frederick Winsor in 1807. In January he lit the street and in June he put on a special gas-lit exhibition here, celebrating King George III's birthday. Lighting streets using gas quickly became very popular and there were once more than 60,000 gas lamps in London. Although most have been converted to electricity, there are still about 1,600 remaining, mainly on landmarks such as Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey. The Picture Source website gives a good history of gas street lighting.

Some lamps were lit by gas from sewers and one of these, in Carting Lane, still works. IanVisits has a good post on it.

Other firsts: IanVisits has a post about the first shopping street in the UK to be lit by electricity. And the Savoy Theatre was the first public building in the world to be lit throughout by electricity.

Londonist has a terrific post about early electric lighting events in London.

2022: Londonist report that these lamps are under threat: Save London's Gas Lamps: Campaign Grows To Keep Our Heritage Glowing.

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
first gas-lit street in the world

Commemorated ati

First gas-lit street

City of Westminster Pall Mall. The first street in London to be lit by gas, ...

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Frederick Winsor

Plaque unveiled by Councillor Carolyn Keen, Lord Mayor of Westminster. At the...

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Sir Joseph Whitworth

Sir Joseph Whitworth

Born Stockport. Engineer working in the field of precision instruments and guns. Philanthropic, giving money for education during his life and encouraging his beneficiaries to do so after his death...

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George Daniels

George Daniels

Horologist. Born in Sunderland. During his lifetime, he was considered to be the best watchmaker in the world, and was one of the few who built complete watches by hand (including the case and dial...

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James Brown

James Brown

Contractors' engineer on the construction of the Rotherhithe Tunnel in 1908.

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François Hennebique

François Hennebique

Engineer and builder. One of the early innovators with reinforced concrete initially in Brussels. In 1892, he patented a reinforced-concrete construction system. The first building erected using th...

Person, Architecture, Engineering, France

1 memorial
Hammersmith Bridge

Hammersmith Bridge

The original bridge was designed by William Tierney Clark, and was the first suspension bridge over the River Thames. By the 1870s, it became evident that it was not strong enough to support the vo...

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