Now I'm satisfied Rural Electrification Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture. [193-]
1 print (poster) : color ; 101 x 76 cm. | Poster shows a woman sitting in a rocking chair while sewing by hand near a table with a lamp.
#101x76cm #theUnitedStates #NowImSatisfied #sewing #posters #publicrelations #color #electriclighting #unitedstates #prints #american #photopgraphy #LibraryOfCongress
Light - Rural electrification administration [193-]
1 print (poster) : color ; 101 x 76 cm. | Poster shows a large light bulb labeled "Light" in the foreground and a rural farmhouse on the distant horizon with light beaming from its windows; on blocks of blue and red representing the night sky and farmland.
#101x76cm #prints #posters #lightbulbs #publicrelations #color #countrylife #unitedstates #electriclighting #american #photopgraphy #LibraryOfCongress
“It is worth recording here the fate of the Tottenham Court Road arc lamp columns,” writes Peter Scott in the July 2024 edition of the Camden History Society newsletter.
Scott is the author of Vestry Arc: The Historic Public Lighting Columns of Saint Pancras, a booklet published in 1979 which describes how Tottenham Court Road became the first London street to be lit with electric lamps by a public authority. The electricity generating station was at 47 Stanhope Street, in the Regent’s Park estate just north of Fitzrovia.
The lamp columns were originally installed down the centre of the road in 1892. Scott managed to get the 11 remaining lamps listed as heritage assets in 1981 in anticipation that they would be removed by Camden Council.
Historic England’s listing entry states: “Eleven lamp posts in centre of road between Goodge Street and Warren Street, Tottenham Court Road.”
Despite the listing, in 2016 Camden Council came along with a traffic scheme which “destroyed” this historic alignment.
“Not only do the columns look silly bunched closely together, but there are now only eight columns remaining,” writes Scott.
“Camden has managed to ‘lose’ three columns. I saw one knocked down at Warren Street a few years ago and a similar fate obviously befell the other two, with no attempt made to repair or recast the damaged columns.
“With the benefit of hindsight, it would have been advantageous to have also listed the substantial square cross-section cast iron ‘St PPM’ guard posts which formerly protected the central islands. These heavy posts were replaced by plastic illuminated guard posts (usually incorrectly called ‘bollards’) which are designed to keel over at the slightest nudge.”
“The moral of this story is that although historic buildings and street furniture can be listed, they are still at the mercy of the whims of ‘Traffic Management Scheme’ consultants who need to justify their own existence,” writes Scott.
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