Summary

A pair of cast iron lamp posts of 1848 design with late C20 lamps, sited outside a Grade II-listed terrace of town houses.

Description

Pair of former gas lamp posts, 1848 design with late C20 lamps.

FORM: cast iron with a square base with embossed decoration featuring a Yorkshire rose set above a palmette to each face. Rising from the base is a tapering, reeded column topped by a palmette decorated bell capital. Above this are a pair of small lion heads flanked by ornately shaped ladder rests. Originally the lantern would rise above this, supported on four curving legs (known as a frog), having glazing to the square base as well as the four sides. The frog and lantern have been lost, the replacement lamp*, swan neck* and switch box* are not of special interest.

STREET SETTING: the lamp posts have a strong visual linkage with 3-25 Swan Road, a Grade II-listed crescent of town houses built in the 1880s.

* Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest.

History

Harrogate’s first 97 street lamps were installed by the Harrogate Gas Company in 1848 on behalf of the Improvement Commissioners (established in 1841, the forerunner of Harrogate’s local council), with further street lamps added in subsequent years. Historical records show that the provision of street lighting in the mid-C19 was a particular focus for the town’s early local authority, prompting much controversy in the years around 1850. Victorian photographs of lamp posts on Promenade Square, Chapel Street, at Christ Church and the Crown Hotel (all locations for lamp posts installed in 1848) show posts matching the design of the posts set outside 3-25 Swan Road. The lanterns were originally lit with open gas flames, these lanterns being replaced after 1898 with smaller ‘Windsor’ style lanterns with more efficient gas mantles, as shown in early C20 photographs. In the late 1960s the lanterns were replaced with electric lamps mounted on swan neck fittings rising from switch boxes set above the ladder rests.

The Ordnance Survey 1:500 Town Plan of Harrogate of 1889-90 marks five street lamps along Swan Road, including two outside 2-25 Swan Road, then named Springfield Terrace. Both these lamp posts have been relocated approximately 20m SW along the road.

Reasons for Listing

The two lamp posts outside 3-25 Swan Road are listed for the following principal reasons:
* Decorative design: a relatively early design of Victorian mass-produced functional, yet decorative street furniture;
* Historical interest: as a marker of Harrogate’s C19 civic pride, the introduction of street lighting from 1848 being a particular focus of the town’s early local authority;
* Group value: particularly with the adjacent Grade II-listed crescent of Victorian town houses, but also with other listed buildings along Swan Road.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26678162

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)