In the West end of the Town, the main pipes for supplying the streets and houses with light from the Gas-Light Company, extend through the most eligible parts; from their Establishment in Peter-street, Westminster, along the line from Pall Mall to Temple-bar, compleatly surrounding the parish of St. Martin’s in the Field. Main pipes are also placed in the Hay-market, Coventry-street, Long-Acre, St. Martin’s-lane; and in the principal parts of the parishes of St. James and St. Ann.
In the East end of the metropolis, the gas-light _mains_ extend from Cornhill to St. Paul’s, Wood-street, Fore-street, &c.--Consent has also been given to the incorporated Gas-Light Company for laying their pipes in the parish of St. Stephen’s in the Field; St. Paul Covent-garden; St. Mary-le-Strand; St. Clement Danes; St. George’s, Bloomsbury; St. Giles’s in the Fields; St. Andrew’s, Holborn, above the bars; part of the parish of St. Mary-la-bonne; besides several other districts, comprehending the whole of the city and suburbs of Westminster.
Enough therefore, has been done to prove the possibility of lighting houses, and streets, with gas, which would have been regarded twenty years ago as an extravagant paradox.[24]
[24] I am informed by Mr. CLEGG, the engineer of the Chartered Gas-Light Company, under whose direction the new system of lighting is carried on, that the total length of pipe laid down, as mains, in the streets of London amounts already to nearly 15 miles.
In the Eastern part of London, the same Company is engaged to lay their pipes in the principal parts of Whitechapel, Spitalfields, St. Luke’s, and the adjoining neighbourhood.
One part of the city of London, extending from Temple-bar to the West end of Cheapside; from Newgate-street to Holborn Bars, together with the intervening streets, is also provided with pipes laid down by another gas-light association, who have opened a new Establishment in Water-lane, Fleet-street, but are unconnected with the Chartered Company. A third company is projected in Southwark, and a fourth in the Eastern district of London, creating by a rivalry of interest, that laudable competition which always proves beneficial to the public at large, and which cannot fail to accelerate the progress of this new art of procuring light.