1900 London Gasworks

The South Metropolitan - the Gas, Light and Coke Company

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GEORG JENSEN PAIR BEAKER STERLING SILVER LONDON 1958-
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PAIR FRUITS SERVING SPOONS MADE IN STERLING SILVER IN LONDON 1827-GEORGE IV
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Following is Arthur H. Beavan's brief overview of the gas companies which supplied London with lighting at the turn of the twentieth century. It is paraphrased from Imperial London, first published in 1901.

From London's bridges could be seen in 1900 a good many of the gas-works which supplied Modern Babylon with one of its sources of illumination.

Of minor gas companies, chiefly suburban, there were some fourteen in all.

But practically there were two that monopolized the manufacture and supply of our gas; viz. the South Metropolitan (whose stations, south of the Thames, were at Rotherhithe, S.E.; Bankside, S.E.; and Bridgefoot, Vauxhall), and the gigantic Gas, Light and Coke Company, who served the north side of the river, and whose charges were a continual source of complaint from consumers.

The latter had colossal works in various quarters, east and west; at Beckton, Woolwich, Silvertown, E., Bromley-by-Bow, Bow Common, Hackney Road, Haggerston, Pimlico, Nine Elms, Kensal Green (from whose cemetery the gas-holders were conspicuous objects), York Road, King's Cross, and immense receivers and works off the New King's Road, Fulham.

Next, 1900 London's Utilities: Electric Companies