Gas street lighting first came to Southampton in 1819-20, making it one of the first towns in Britain to have a gas supply. A gas works and gasometer were erected near the Itchen shore in Northam by a local firm, Barlow Brothers. Pipes were laid and the gas lamps themselves were supported on iron pillars donated to the town by local MP William Chamberlayne of Western Grove. In 1823 the works was taken over by a private company who ran it until 1848 when the Southampton Gaslight and Coke Company, inaugurated by an Act of Parliament, took over management of the enterprise. In 1865 parliamentary power was obtained to take over the Shirley and Freemantle Gas Company. The Southampton Gaslight and Coke Company celebrated its centenary in 1948, shortly before the gas industry was nationalized.
see also
Further reading:
History of Southampton, by Rev. J. S. Davies, p514-515. (HS/h)
History of Southampton Vol 1, by A. Temple Patterson, p138-139. (HS/h)
History of Southampton Vol 3, by A. Temple Patterson, p48-49. (HS/h)
Southampton: A civic Survey, by P. Ford (ed), p98. (HS/o)
Southampton Occasional Notes, by ‘Townsman’, p27-28. (HS/h)
Public Life in Southampton, Volume 1, by James Lemon, p83-94. (HS/l)
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