LIGHTING

Ancient Lights

Under the Right To Light Act of 1832, twenty years residence enabled a person to claim the right to preserve their receipt of direct light.

Location: The Hope, 15 Tottenham Street, W1T 2AJ. There is an Ancient Lights sign on the pub's Whitfield Street side. (blue, grey)

Blue Light

Blue lights are used in public facilities to discourage narcotics users from injecting. This it makes it harder for them to find their veins.

Candles

Thomas Guy

The bookseller, South Sea Company investor, and philanthropist Thomas Guy (d.1724) sought to avoid personal expenditure whenever possible. He is said to have only ever burned one candle at a time. It is reputed that upon one occasion an associate visited him after nightfall in order to discuss something. Guy came to the opinion that the matter would be of no profit to himself. Therefore, he extinguished the candle's flame declaring, If that is all you have to talk about we can very well talk it over in the dark!

Location: 1 Cornhill, EC3V 3ND (orange, purple)

Price's Patent Candle Company

In 1830 William Wilson and Benjamin Lancaster founded Price s. They named the business after their maiden aunt - a Miss E. Price. In 1847 the enterprise was incorporated under an Act of Parliament as a limited company. Price's grew to have factories around the world. Mr Lancaster was an enlightened employer. He was one of the first to introduce a twelve-hour day. At each site he built a school and children were only permitted to earn money in the factory if they did well at school. The business built the first company village at Bromborough Pool on Merseyside.¹ The enterprise s diversified into soap and oil products. During the First World War the firm provided so many men that a battalion was nicknamed the Sherwoods, after a style of candle that the business manufactured.

In 1922 Lever Brothers bought Price s; palm oil had supplanted beeswax and tallow as the raw material for candles. In the 1930s paraffin wax succeeded palm oil as the principal base. As a result, BP, Burmah, and Shell purchased the company from Lever. In 1991 Shell sold the enterprise to a private investor. Price's moved from Battersea to Bedford seven years later.

Location: 100 York Road, SW11 3RD

Website: www.prices-candles.co.uk

¹. Lever Brother's better known Port Sunlight was built next to it.

The Sir John Soane Museum

On the first Tuesday every month the Sir John Soane Museum is lit by candlelight.

Location: 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, WC2A 3BP (blue, orange)

Website: www.soane.org

Electric Lighting

In 1878 John Hollingshead installed six electric lights in The Gaiety Theatre.

The Savoy Theatre (1881) was the first public building in London to have electric lighting.

Location: The Gaiety Theatre, Aldwych, WC2B 4BZ. Demolished in 1903. The Silken Hotel occupies the site. (orange, grey)

The Savoy Theatre, Savoy Court, WC2R 0ET (blue, turquoise)

Website: www.thesavoytheatre.com

Arc Lamp

In 1807 Davy invented the arc lamp (several hundred candle power); it had carbon diodes and battery-powered. It was far too strong for domestic use. Its use only became widespread after Z nobe Gramme in Paris invented a reliable electric generator. Arc lamps were used to light public places.

Location: The Royal Institution of Great Britain, 21 Albemarle Street, W1S 4BS (red, brown)

Website: www.rigb.org

Incandescent Bulb

Joseph Swan (1828-1914) trained as a druggist. He first saw an incandescent filament demonstrated during the mid-1840s. In his professional life he had been increasingly working as a chemist. He made a series of technological contributions to the advancement of photography. He made an attempt to develop an electric light in the 1860s. However, his effort proved unsuccessful. In the late 1870s he returned to the topic and found that Hermann Sprengel's (1834-1096) vacuum pump in 1865 made his task much more viable.

In 1880 Swan publicly unveiled a lamp that had a carbonised thread. A company was set up to manufacture his invention. The Edison Lighting Company had been established to manufacture the electric lamp that Thomas Edison (1847-1931) had invented. It brought an action against Swan. Before the matter could go to trial the two companies settled their differences with one another and merged in 1883. The new entity manufactured the Ediswan lamp, which was based upon what Swan had developed. The sixteen-candle incandescent bulb was suitable for domestic use. The company aggressively guarded its interests against attempts by potential rivals to be active in the sector. The company's factory was in a former jute works in Duck Lees Lane, Ponders End.

While a student at the Science Schools in South Kensington, (John) Ambrose Fleming (1849-1945) had witnessed the way in which heated metals caused an asymmetrical discharge of electrical charges. Subsequently, he was to appreciate that the phenomenon was thermionic emission. He continued his studies with James Clerk Maxwell at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. While there, he developed Carey Foster s resistance bridge into an instrument that became known as Fleming's banjo. Following the creation of Ediswan he was appointed to a senior technical position within the company. To improve the business's quality control he devised a photometric apparatus. He also became interested in the problem of the Edison effect. He and Rookes Crompton (1845-1940), the champion of direct current technology, developed a mutually supportive relationship.

After a couple of years with Ediswan Fleming returned to academia, taken up a chair of electrical technology at University College. There, trying to understand the Edison effect proved to be one of his principal research topics, as did the scope for using alternating currency to transmit electricity over long distances. In 1892 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; in large part this was an acknowledgement of his work on the effect. The need to secure equipment and facilities prompted Fleming to assiduously court commercial interests that were interested in using electricity. In 1897 the estate of the telegraphy tycoon Sir John Pender (1816-1896) made a major bequest. This led to Fleming's laboratory being renamed the Pender Laboratory and his chair the Pender professorship.

In the mid-to-late 1890s Fleming sought to apply his expertise with alternating currents to the frequency oscillations that were being found into wireless transmissions. In 1899 the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company appointed him as a scientific adviser. His relationship with Guglielmo Marconi proved somewhat fraught. Nevil Makselyne proved to be able to enhance the Marconi system's messages. As a result, Marconi let go of Fleming.

The professor was intent on re-ingratiating himself into the Marconi business. He appreciated that it needed a device that could measure the strength of wireless signals. Drawing on his knowledge of thermionic emission, the Edison effect, and A.C. technology, he invented the thermionic valve. This controlled the flow an electric current through a vaccuum between two diodes. Its development underwrote the creation of modern electronics. In 1905 he unveiled its existence at a meeting of the Royal Society. The valve's performance was improved considerably when Marconi added a jigger circuit to it.

Location: 9 Clifton Gardens, W9 1AL. Fleming s home.

Duck Lees Lane, Ponder's End, EN3 7UH. Ediswan's factory.

University College, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT (purple, red)

58 Holland Park, W11 3SJ. Swan lived in the property from 1894 to 1908.

Lauriston, London Road, Bromley. Swan moved into the house in 1883. He had a laboratory upon the property in which he refined the incandescent electric light bulb.

See Also: RADIO Guglielmo Marconi

Lights Out

Despite having a home in Mayfair, the B.B.C. Radio music producer Bernie Andrews was notorious for his frugality. He was given to returning light bulbs to the John Lewis department store if he was of the opinion that they had lasted insufficiently long.

Location: 300 Oxford Street, W1A 1EX (orange, red)

Website: www.johnlewis.com

Turning The Lights Back On

In 1939, following the outbreak of the Second World War, the lights of London s West End. Zoe Gail (n e Stapleton) (1920-2020) was a physically-striking, red-headed South African singer. During the Second World War she became a star of London theatre. Her career was aided by her marriage to the songwriter Hubert Gregg (1914-2004).¹ In 1943 she was working at The Prince of Wales Theatre. There, her performance included her husband's song Strike A New Note (1940), while dressed in men's evening garb. The writer J.B. Priestley took exception to both her and the song which included the statement that her character intended to get pickled and positively pie-eyed once the blackout had ended. Gregg commented that perhaps Priestly would have preferred it if he (Gregg) had written a song entitled I m Going To Get Down To Some Real Postwar Reconstruction On Armistice Night.

Winston Churchill thoroughly approved of what he saw. After watching her perform, he went backstage and declared that When we have won the war, you can turn the lights in London back on. Following the Allies victory, economic considerations meant the electric lighting for outdoor advertisements remained turned off. In 1949, a decade after they had been turned off, they were turned. Despite, the fact that Churchill had been elected out of office, his commitment was honoured. Ms Gail did so from the balcony of The Criterion Restaurant. Dressed in top hat, white coat and tails, she sang I m Going To Get Lit Up When The Lights Go Up In London.

Location: The Criterion Restaurant, 224 Piccadilly, W1J 9HP (purple, pink)

¹. Gregg's best-known song was Maybe Its Because I m A Londoner.

Gas Lighting

In the early 1790s William Murdoch developed a coal gas tank. Frederick Winsor, a German engineer, appreciated that the device had the potential to be used as an essential part of a street lighting system. This was first demonstrated from a retort that was located on what is now the western end of No. 100 Pall Mall. The pipes used to channel the gas were the barrels of old muskets. In 1812 Winsor's Gas Light & Coke Company was set up under a royal charter.

The German-born chemist Friedrich Accum was appointed as a director of the Company. He oversaw the installation gas lighting in Westminster during 1814.

The arrival of commercial gaslight extended the working day for people who worked indoors.

Location: 100 Pall Mall, SW1Y 5NQ (orange, purple)

Lamps

Christopher Wray Lighting

Christopher Wray (1940-2014) worked as a magician and then trained to be an actor. In the early 1960s he worked as Tommy Cooper's stage manager. As such, he was required to scour junkshops for items that the comedian-magician could use as stage props. In the early 1960s there was an actors strike. In order to have some income he took a stall in Chelsea Antiques Market to sell some of the bric- -brac he had amassed. He noticed that vintage lamps sold particularly well. He found that he could buy them for 5s. in the junk shops at the western of the King's Road and that, after some polishing, they would sell for 3. He used skills that he had developed as an actor to help him sell his wares. In 1964 he opened a shop on the King's Road in a former post office. This had a harmonium in it. Among those who would sometimes drop in to play it was Dudley Moore.

Wray adapted oil lamps so that they could use electric light bulbs. The interest in Art Nouveau prompted people to seek out Tiffany lampshades.

When London dealers became wise to the profits he was making, they raised their prices. He started sourcing material from Ireland and Europe.

In the mid-1970s he started manufacturing. His business became the largest dedicated lighting retailer in the United Kingdom.

In 1990 he consolidated his business by opening a large, purpose-built emporium at the western end of the King's Road.

In Wray's later years, he closed all of his outlets bar the Chelsea one. This, he focused on specialist luxury lighting. In 2012 he sold the brand. The shop closed subsequently.

Location: 599 The King's Road, SW6 2EL (blue, orange)

Website: www.christopherwray.com

Lighting Design

Historically, architects had tended to design buildings lighting schemes. In the late 1980s specialist consultancies emerged.

Concord Lighting

Concord Lighting worked with Future Systems on the Lord's Media Centre and Alsop Architects on Peckham Library.

Website: www.sylvania-lighting.com/en-gb/concord-lighting/concord-lighting

Derek Phillips

In the early 1950s Derek Phillips (1923-2013) studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his time there he met Frank Lloyd Wright and took a particular interest in how the architect had used natural light for his Johnson Wax building in Wisconsin. Phillips returned to Britain. In 1958 he established DPA, the country's first lighting design consultancy. In the 1980s he oversaw the relighting of the Foreign & Commonwealth's Locarno Suit and its Durbar Court.

Website: www.dpalighting.com

Moonlight

In the earliest days of public street lighting, provision was so expensive that it was not used on clear, fullish Moon nights

Neon

Neon was discovered by Sir William Ramsay. He ignored it and went on to win a Nobel prize. It was the George Claude, a Frenchman, who developed it into an advertising medium. His politics were of the Far Right. The tubes had to be made by being bent by a craftsperson. Neon went downmarket changing from a symbol of luxury to one of decay.

Blue neon was argon mixed with a trace of mercury. Different colours are created by having different types of phosphor on the side of the tube.

The Master of Glow

Dick Bracey was an electrician who set up Electro Signs, a business that made neon signs for fairgrounds and amusement arcades. In 1958 it made the dancing chorus girl Girls Girls Girls sign for Raymond's Revue Bar. His son Chris Bracey (1954-2014) had studied graphics at art college. His father inveigled him into joining the family business signs by arguing that the signs could be a means of artistic expression. The youth took to drawing on elements of Fifties Americana and to utilising elements of tattoo culture.

Paul Raymond was building up an estate to the west of the Charing Cross Road. He wanted it to become a lurid fantasy world. At his prompting many of the sex establishments commissioned work from the Braceys. Chris became known by monikers such as the Neon Man and the Master of Glow. His skills proved to be such that he was commissioned to produce work for movies such as Blade Runner (1982), Mona Lisa (1986), and Eyes Wide Shut (1999).

In 1997 Chris saw the Bruce Nauman exhibition at the Hayward. The show made him appreciate the way in which neon tubes might be used artistically. He worked with a number of artists. In 2000 he ghosted the whole world + the work (2014) sign for Martin Creed. This was erected on the front of Tate Britain. Bracey came to be appreciated in his own right. Shows of his work were mounted by a commercial gallery in the United States. Works that Raymond had commissioned were bought by a museum in Berlin. He referred to his fans as neon groupies . He remained very much a geezer.

Location: Unit 12, Ravenswood Industrial Estate, Shernhall Street, Walthamstow, E17 9HQ. A workshop-cum-warehouse where Bracey kept those examples of his works that had ended their working lives. He referred to it as God's Own Junkyard .

Website: www.godsownjunkyard.co.uk

Pleasure Gardens

In the 18^thC the illumination of the pleasure gardens was part of their appeal.

In the later 19^thC the development of music hall would have undermined the downmarket pleasure gardens.

See Also: PLEASURE GARDENS

Street Lighting

Victoria Embankment was the first street to have underground electric lighting.

See Also: STREET FURNITURE Lampposts

Torch Snuffers

Location: 48 Berkeley Square, W1J 5AX (purple, turquoise)

50 Berkeley Square, W1J 5HA (purple, orange)

Gwydr House, 61 Whitehall, SW1A 2ET (purple, purple)

Trinity Buoy Lighthouse

Michael Faraday conducted experiments on lighting equipment at the Thames Lighthouse that stands opposite the Millennium Dome.

Location: Orchard Place, Trinity Buoy Wharf, E14 0JW

Website: www.trinityhouse.co.uk

Whale Oil

In 1859 petroleum (mineral oil) was discovered in Pennsylvania.

David Backhouse 2024