Why do I refer to the bike as a "lamplighter"? In the old days lamp lighting was a job. A lamp lighter went around in the evening usually with a ladder and lit up each gas powered lamp post in turn.
Some of the people doing this job had specialist bikes made that were very tall. Then they could just cycle between each one, hold on (or lean) and light them without needing the ladder.
The design here is classic lamplighter bike style, albeit scaled down. A real lamplighter would be over 7 foot.
I'm old enough to remember them.
Ours didn't have bicycles, they carried a ladder.
That's why they had cross bars, to lean the ladder on.
Our window cleaners had bicycles.
They rode them with their extention ladders on their shoulders, head between two middle rungs, a bucket hung on each end. How they didn't break their necks in falls, IDK.
They'd get one bucket filled with soapy water, one clean water, at a house in each row.
Clean the windows, dump the water, cycle of to the next row.
1 shilling per house.
They wore special jackets with huge leather pockets to hold their leather wash cloths.
1950s, northern England.
We lived in an industrial town with so much smoke and soot that windows had to be done every two weeks.
Velocipede Rider
Eric Lawton