Brits are sometimes accused of fogeyism, of prizing old things above anything new, but it’s not like that. What I see, and not just among my compatriots, is a real and deeply rooted appetite for authenticity, for the real thing rather than modern replicas, and that feeling is only getting stronger and skewing younger. That’s what’s behind the furious reaction to plans to rip out Canterbury’s ornate Victorian lamp posts, cast in a local ironworks, in favour of modern posts with ‘a heritage look’.
As an antiquarian bookseller, I have skin in the game: my livelihood depends on not being the only person who cares about the patina of age. Back in 2021 I helped launch a successful campaign to persuade Westminster Council to cherish the historic gas street lamps in its care, rather than replace them with LED alternatives. Costs and safety issues were cited to deflect criticism, but when we got the facts, the emperor had no clothes. Luckily, a surprising number of people prize authenticity over uniformity.
Like Westminster, Canterbury is home to a key Unesco World Heritage Site, and ripping out the old posts – as the Reform UK-run Kent County Council is set to do – would be seriously detrimental to a historic streetscape which people visit from all over the world. All 242 of the posts that are earmarked for removal were cast locally and cannot be found anywhere else.
Unfortunately, I have the sense that, as was the case in Westminster, specious justifications are being plucked from the air to justify a decision which was made on purely utilitarian grounds. For a start, a cost of £4,000 to restore and paint each post seems palpably absurd. How expensive will it be to fabricate and install each replacement? If they have been neglected and fallen into disrepair as a result, these historic lamps need to be restored, not scrapped. As the excellent Ptolemy Dean, architect and president of the Canterbury Society, has already said, with a coat of paint every five to ten years there’s no reason why these historic lamp posts shouldn’t be lighting the city’s ancient streets for centuries to come.
Believe me when I say it can be done. The gas lamps in Westminster have now been listed by Historic England and will be preserved for future generations to enjoy. The oldest posts carry the cypher of William IV and are just shy of 200 years old, but the gas mechanisms they support still throw out a Dickensian glow that people love.
We weren’t professional campaigners. Our group, the London Gasketeers, won the backing of heritage bodies such as the Victorian Society and residents’ groups. And, because we were entirely apolitical, we were supported by both our local Conservative MP and the GMB union. But most importantly we won the support of thousands of people who visit, live or work in Westminster. They included tour guides, taxi drivers, photographers and architects; people of all ages and backgrounds. A council consultation received more than 1,200 responses from as far afield as Charleston and Adelaide, so it wasn’t only locals who were outraged, and we quickly picked up 10,000 followers on social media. People took notice.
Britain introduced gas street lighting to the world, and lamp posts like the ones now under threat in Canterbury changed the way people lived and worked. They are both beautiful and historic, and I would urge the council to listen to the Victorian Society, the Canterbury Society and other local residents before it’s too late. If we can do it in Westminster, you can do it too.
Tim Bryars is a rare book seller who spearheaded the campaign to save Westminster’s gas lamps