The Scotsman

When the Glasgow gas lamps went out for the last time

Alison Campsie shines a light on the band of ‘leeries’ who kept the city’s street lamps burning for more than 150 years

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The lamplighte­rs – or leeries – were a familiar sight on the streets of Glasgow as they dashed from lamp to lamp before dusk with their long ladders and lighting poles.

The leeries kept the street lamps burning for more than 150 years, with the last flame being snuffed out just 46 years ago this month.

It was a night of “nostalgia tinged with sadness” when the last remaining street lamp in the city, in North Portland Street, was ceremoniou­sly lit on 1 September, 1971, by Lord Provost Sir Donald Liddle.

Looking on were the 12 long-serving leeries of Glasgow’s lighting department – who had clocked up 356 years of service between them.

“It was a nostalgic occasion tinged with sadness,” one newspaper reported at the time.

Despite the sentiment, the report also welcomed the progress of the city lighting department.

It added: “No one would want to return to the days of the gas lamps which, placed at lengthy intervals in city streets, merely cast a shadow and gave rise to the cry frequently heard many years ago: ‘Tis dark as pitch, tis dark as pitch’.”

While the gas street lights went out in 1971, the leeries still attended 12,664 gas lights in the city’s stairwells and closes.

By then, the lamplighte­rs took the more formal title of “public lighting maintenanc­e engineers” with staff also looking after almost 150,000 electric stair lamps.

“The leeries of course had their problems, particular­ly with unruly boys who used to taunt them, knowing that the lamp lighter, burdened with his ladder and pole, could not chase them,” the report said.

It added: “A favourite game in many Glasgow streets was to wait for the lamplighte­r to light the lamps in one street then shin up the lampposts and blow the lights out, telling the leerie from a safe distance what had happened.”

Street lighting was first introduced in Glasgow in 1780, although the whole system consisted of only nine oil lamps between the Tron Steeple and Stockwell Street in the heart of the wealthy merchants area.

By 1815, the number of lamps had risen to 1,274.

The general practice in those days, for those who could afford it, was to have a servant carrying an oil lamp to light the way when out walking.

The first street gas lamp was installed in the Trongate in 1818 with police recommendi­ng that all oil lamps should be converted to gas the following year.

From 1893, electric lights started to become the norm.

The demise of gas lighting in Glasgow created an unexpected demand for the distinctiv­e lamps, with orders coming in from homesick Scots and collectors of the city’s relics from around the world.

According to Edinburgh World Heritage, the first public street lighting in the Capital was installed in 1684, when the Lord Provost bought 24 lanterns for oil lamps from London, but only the High Street and Cowgate were lit.

Gas lighting was introduced to Edinburgh in 1819 on North Bridge, and the Corporatio­n then began to replace wooden poles with cast iron lamp standards. EWH says five of these original standards still exist in the city. Its website says: “The architect W Burn proposed a freestandi­ng lamp design with fluted column and square base in 1827, which was accepted by the Corporatio­n and later lights of this type were installed all over the city. 0 Lord Provost of Glasgow Sir Donald Liddle lights the last Glasgow gas street lamp in September 1971; old gas lamps for sale in Edinburgh’s King’s Stables Road in 1960; and a lamp in Old Playhouse Close in the capital’s Canongate

“The pavement-mounted gas lamp standards used to stand on a square stone block, and a few of these still survive in Edinburgh, typically showing five lead-filled holes. Electricit­y was first used in 1881 with the trial installati­on of electric street lighting in Princes Street, Waverley Bridge and North Bridge.

“During the Second World War the glass from the street lamps was removed, perhaps to prevent casualties from flying glass during bombing raids. The last gas lamp was switched off in 1965 in Ramsay Gardens.”

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