Summary
What the newspaper archives tell us vs what people on Twitter tell us
It was Mike Petty who wrote in his guide on Cambridge’s Commons that Parker’s Piece got its central street lamps installed in 1894 – what locals today call ‘Reality Checkpoint.’ Various urban legends have emerged since then.
We can’t really start a post about Cambridge’s street lamps without mentioning John Grafton, a pioneer of early gas street lighting – as described by Allan Brigham here. He was the one who introduced Cambridge to the concept of street lighting in the early 1800s.
As mentioned in previous blogposts, the 1800s was a time not just of rapid population growth – Cambridge’s population rose from 9,000 to 40,000 in that century, but also of the growth of municipal councils responsible for delivering/providing an ever growing range of public services as science, engineering and technology advanced.
The British Newspaper Archive tells us that there were a number of proposals to install street lamps around Parker’s Piece. Note that by 1841 the University Arms hotel had been built and was operational. At the same time the town gaol situated on the south side of Parker’s Piece was also still there.
From the British Newspaper Archive (above) and the Town Gaol from the Museum of Cambridge (below).
The Kelsey Kerridge Sports Centre and the Queen Anne Terrace Car Park now sit on the site that was once the town gaol.
In the 1800s the piece was in demand from a number of different groups. Men playing cricket or football were one, people grazing their animals were another, and those that wanted to have stroll on the piece were another – and they didn’t always agree with each other!
Newspapers of the time tell us that in 1893, a group of residents got together and petitioned the local council to have a street lamp at the centre of Parker’s Piece, primarily to make it more safer.
From the British Newspaper Archive (above).
Work began in 1894 (from the British Newspaper Archive) and is described as follows:
“Active proceedings in the laying on of an electric light on Parker’s Piece were begun on Wednesday of last week. The connection was made from Parkside, running parallel with the path from Melbourne Place [by Parkside School] to Hyde Park Corner [where the big Catholic Church is].
“By Wednesday evening last the connections were completed and all is now in readiness for the erection of the lamp. We learn that the Company is awaiting directions from their contractors and that three days after the receipt of the same the light may be expected to be throwing its powerful and pleasing rays over the Piece.
“The lamp, which was to have been nominally of 2,000 candle power, will have an actual power of 2,590, and is now undergoing a severe trial at the Company’s works, to prevent any chance of failure, and the standard around which a great amount of interest is centred, will be a very handsome ornament to the piece, and a fitting support for so magnificent a light.
“It is a strong metal column, combining artistic decoration with strength, and is square at the base surmounted with a circular pillar prettily ornamented with dolphins and gradually tapering until a height of about 24 feet it is completed by a light and attractive case of metal trellis work which contains the lamp, which will be 25 ft from the ground. The standard is being made by C.A. Parsons and Co, of Newcastle-on-Tyne.
The final lamp looked something like this
Now either someone else got in there to fit the base, or the place where the original metal came from was Glasgow!
Not in the greatest of states in 2012, a couple of years later, Phil Rodgers made a complaint about it.
Personally I prefer the 1974 version.
It finally got a repaint as part of the University Arms Hotel project, which funded artist Emma Smith to spruce it up in summer 2017.
L-R: Emma Smith, Zelda, Hilary Cox.
I guess the moral of the story is that for good things to happen in Cambridge, it needs ideas to come from local residents. Who out of the well-meaning residents from the 1890s would have thought over a century later their street lamp would still be with us?
Supporting my research.
For those of you who are able and want to support my research, please do so following this link.
Lost Cambridge 