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William
Sugg & Co
1837 - 1969 |
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William
Sugg & Co
1837 - 1969 |
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Columns & Brackets
This illustration taken from William Sugg's book "Modern Street Lighting" first printed in 1871, indicates the care and detail that went into every product that came from the Sugg factory and foundry. Londoners and those who have walked by the river Thames will perhaps recognize the main shaft of the right hand post with its twisted fish design which matches the magnificent pedestals still mounted on The Embankment wall with Globe Lamps. These Globe Lamps are shown in the Street Lantern section under 'Lighting' as are both the Lambeth & Whitehall on the posts above. The left hand post was a popular design available in no less than 4 sizes as a single post and 3 sizes with a triple head and an even larger variation 16, 18 and 20 ft tall. At least one good example exists in Hyde Park and it carries the Sugg 'En Avant' (In Advance) logo as shown below.
Although it may look unlikely from the photograph, if you find this post in the centre of Hyde Park quite near 'Ranger's Lodge', you will discover that it is surprisingly large. The point where the tapered section meets the diamond pattern shaft is the best part of 6ft off the ground! Many of the very decorative cast iron posts dating before about 1900 are that size because of the huge lanterns they supported. As explained in the section on Street Lanterns but worth repeating here, the lanterns grew progressively larger with the demand for more light because the only way to achieve this in the days before the invention of the mantle was to fit larger or multiple flame burners. The heat from these burners was sufficient to melt the solder that held the copper lanterns together if they were not large enough to allow for sufficient air movement to keep the temperature under control.
This magnificent column is still in its original location at the top of Northumberland Avenue, albeit with the later Parkinson High Pressure lanterns recently refurbished and electrically operated (see below the text). The accompanying note from the Metropolitan of October 27th 1883 provides interesting detail as follows.
This is the same magnificent column photographed September 2007. The original globe lanterns were replaced by Parkinson high pressure lanterns which remained in place long after they had stopped working and have only recently been tidily refurbished and converted to electricity. The second post is near Admiralty Arch at the top of The Mall.
The 'cherubs' around the centre of the column
have been coyly linking arms for The Northumberland Avenue Sugg Globes are illustrated and discussed in the section on Large Lanterns
LOTS TO COME - DO CALL BACK - CHECK THE DATE ON THE HOME PAGE.
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