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Nothing was done about illuminating the centre of Parker's Piece until November 1893, when the Council considered a petition from local residents calling for the erection of a lamp, as announced in the Cambridge Independent Press (10 November 1893).
A William Taylor Illsley of Regent Street was instrumental in obtaining signatures to this – apparently, as far as he was concerned, not so much for safety reasons but ostensibly to commemorate the Royal Agricultural Show, which was to be held in Cambridge the following summer. Illsley later petitioned for four similar lamps to be placed at each corner of Parker’s Piece to replace the perimeter gas lamps, as a permanent memorial to the coronation of Edward VII.
It might be relevant that William Illsley was a prominent coal merchant in the town, as well as secretary of the New Town Conservative Club: did he perhaps have a vested interest in promoting the coal-fired generation of electricity?
Cambridge Independent Press, 18 January 1890
Cambridge Daily News, 28 February 1902
The following month, December 1893, the Council’s Paving and Drainage Committee responded to the petition by voting in favour of the erection of a powerful light "of 1,000 or 2,000 candle power" on Parker’s Piece. Bids were invited. The Gas Company stated that they were unable to furnish an estimate for such a lamp.
The Electric Supply Company were though and quoted £39 10s for the installation of a lamppost of some 25 feet, plus 2¾d per hour for supplying current to a 10-amp lamp. There were additional costs for laying cast-iron pipes with two wires, 164 yards at 3s 9d per yard. If the corporation needed any more persuading, the company also intimated that they were prepared to supply the current for the first year free of cost on condition that the corporation would continue to pay for it after that time.
Cambridge Independent Press, 15 December 1893
The quote was accepted, although the whole idea of illuminating Parker’s Piece still had its dissenters. Councillor H.M. Taylor, while proposing the adoption of the report, said he was one of those persons who was sorry to see paths made across the Piece, but he supposed there was no chance now of their being abolished.
There were also concerns that a single dazzling light in the centre of the Piece may actually mean people would see less than they might with no light at all! According to newspaper reports, this raised a laugh in the committee room (although it sounds like the kind of thing that might perhaps have appealed to students of logic). Other people – presumably not from Romsey Town – cautioned that during the cricket season the lamp would be broken.
Nevertheless, work commenced in January 1894. A pipe was laid from Parkside, running parallel with the path opposite Melbourne Place. Once the connections were completed, the pillar was erected. This attracted a great deal of interest and was described in the Cambridge Independent Press (2 February 1894) as a "very handsome ornament to the Piece". It comprised "a strong metal column, square at the base … surmounted with a circular pillar prettily decorated with dolphins [fish?] and gradually tapering".
Fishy decoration was a popular choice for lampposts, drinking fountains and other public iron works at the time, perhaps after the "Dolphin lampposts" (actually, sturgeon fish) along the Thames Embankment, which were designed by George Vulliamy (1817–86) in the 1870s.
I’ve not seen any close-up photographs or drawings of the lamppost from this early period, and I don’t know what colour it was originally. We do know that the ornate “dolphins” or fish entwined around the post was the work of the Sun Foundry, Glasgow, as their name is still visible in two places: on the lower plinth, usually painted black, and higher up, just above the screw-head on the side with the inspection hatch.
The Sun Foundry of George Smith and Co, Glasgow, architectural ironfounders, was not, as far as I know, responsible for London's Embankment dolphins. They certainly manufactured other similar works though, such as a lamppost on Queen’s Bridge, Belfast (c.1885), the village fountain in St Arvans (1893) and in particular compare with the drinking fountain in the Durban Botanical Gardens, South Africa. This was erected by George Smith & Co in 1899, the year the company ceased trading, and would appear to be pretty identical to the decoration on the Parker’s Piece lamppost, suggesting the design was selected from a pattern book of some sort.
The Cambridge Independent Press reported that "the standard is being made by C.A. Parsons & Co of Newcastle-upon-Tyne". C.A. Parsons & Co were manufacturers of turbines and arc lamps, not a foundry, and installed the first turbo-alternators for generating electricity at Cambridge in 1892. So presumably they supplied the original pillar and lamp itself?
The single lamp was encased in a metal trellis, 25 feet from the ground. Although it was to have been nominally of 2,000 candle power, it had an actual power of 2,500 and had undergone a "severe trial at the Company’s works to prevent any chance of failure". Three days later, a switch was flicked and it was illuminated for the first time.
Cambridge Independent Press, 2 February 1894
The lamp was clearly a boon to pedestrians crossing Parker’s Piece at night at the turn of the century.
Not everyone liked the new illumination though – some trysting couples who frequented the Piece, it was said, preferred moonlight and shadows. The lamp was even rumoured to have been targeted by the flamboyant "sexologist" Noel Teulon Porter (1885–1962), who apparently attempted to blow it up in the interests of free love.
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