Lamp Posts

In the 18^th and 19^th century, the nights in cities such as London were so badly lit shops and business owners would hang lanterns outside and people often had to resort to carrying lanterns if there was no moonlight.  Gas lit street lamps first appeared in the early 1800’s, and up until the 1930’s almost half of London’s street lamps were still run on gas.  The horizontal bar seen on many old lampposts was to provide a secure rest for the lamplighter’s ladders at dusk when they were lit and at dawn when they were extinguished.