Lighting London Streets 1750

The streets of London in 1750 were awash with the glow of oil lamps as a new lighting was installed.

    • The lights were fitted with reflectors making the pools of light more effective.
    • These lights were left lit all night making the streets safer to be in and also contributed to London being an unatural place, a place that did not sleep. imagine the darkness of homes in the country at that time, what must it have been like to first chance upon the city that could, if it wanted to, stay awake all night?

Retailers could show off their wares by oil lights and the people responded by venturing out in the winter evenings to peruse the lit shop fronts.

Pleasure gardens such as those at Vauxhall used the lighting to their advantage, having drawn the people in by oil light they continued the entertainment with shows of fireworks and other illuminated attractions.

Find out more about the occupation of lamplighter by following the links or to see other occupations and historical contexts go to the Intriguing Family History site

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