Cannon lamp posts

Earlier this month I was busy googling info about St James's Square when this image on eBay cropped up in the search results. Here's a screen shot of that page in case the item is sold by the time you click on the link:

The image is dated 1933 and shows at the eastern corner of St James's Square at its junction with Charles II Street here where today an [electric] lamp post stands, the same design most of the others around the square.

Ooh ooh, I thought, I know I've seen a different photo of that lamp post somewhere else. But I couldn't recall where that was, nor could I find ref of it in my files. Hmm. I parked the idea and bookmarked the eBay link. 

Then, a few weeks later, whilst tidying up my ever-expanding collection of London books, I rediscovered and started re-reading H.V. Morton's book Ghosts of London, first published Nov 16th 1939. I love reading old books that contain recollections, observations and personal accounts of old London and this is one of my favourites. Chapter 11 is about gas lamps. Morton recounts time spent with one of the maintenance team who look after and light London's street lamps. The chapter includes a marvellous photo of what Morton is told is a unique cannon lamp post outside No.2 St James's Square, at that time the head office of Canada Life Insurance  – Aha! This is where I'd seen it! 

Morton's text continues... 

He was a brother of... Lord Falmouth. This ship played her part in the tremendous victory over the French off Cape Finisterre, and this London lamp post was one of the guns which she captured from the French. Boscawen presented it to his brother, and, when the gas lighting came in about sixty years later, the old cannon was used as the stand for the first gas light in front of Lord Falmouth's house (...) The lamp standard springs from the muzzle that once fired shot at Anson's squadron one hundred and eighty-eight years ago. 

But here's strange, the eBay image showing the post being removed is dated 1933. This surely cannot be correct if Morton is writing about it in the run up to Nov 1939. I very much doubt that it took him over  six years to complete.

But is it, was it, unique? I wonder if a clarifying word/element is missing in this claim, that this post design was the only one of its kind on a public highway. Because, a few days after rediscovering Morton's book, I happened to be wandering from Fleet Street to Lincoln's Inn Square and, as I entered the south side of New Square from Carey Street, I happened to notice what looked like a very similar silhouette ahead of me:

However, on closer inspection, I decided it was a modern replica – too new, too smooth, too perfect. Hmmm (my ponder word). I looked across the square and could see that there were many more of this design here and there, interspersed with fancier shapes and many of the lanterns are still gas-powered. I decided to walk clockwise around the square. 

This is the southern edge looking eastwards (left) and westwards (right) towards another cannon-shaped base which had an illuminated gas lantern at 5.30pm, followed by a similar one at the corner:

The western side includes a lamp base with faceted rings around it:

Further along I noticed that many of the cannon-shaped lamp bases sport the name BROXAP with the letters arranged vertically. So, yes, they are indeed newly-produced – it turns out the company makes 164 different types of bollard!

Hmmm (again), but why make the bases of some of these lamp posts resemble bollards? 

I have an idea... 

Almost at the NW corner there is another lamp with a cannon-shaped base but this one appears to be older. The metal is different, less new-looking, and it also has some ventilation holes drilled around the top band:

Could this particular lamp post be an original cannon base as per the one that was at St James's Square? Perhaps this is the last one left standing, where before there were many, and this one has been reproduced around the square. Note that this is a private square not a public highway, hence explaining why the St James's one is cited as being 'unique'..? If my hunch is true then there might be more of these things in the vicinity or within other inns of court or private squres.

How lovely to have all these things come together in the space of three weeks – the eBay listing, the book, the street furniture here.

There are many more lovely features in New Square so, before I end this post, lets just look at a few of them. There's some fabulous wisteria adorning the eastern side:

The date of the hall can be found within the brickwork of the building and there are impressive lamp posts and lanterns on the northern side of the square, almost regal in their design:

On the NE corner you'll find an excellent example of a Royal Mail post box complete with a directional sign pointing to a Post Office that used to be at the northern end of Chancery Lane. Today, the nearest POs are within the Rymans on Grays Inn Rd or on Aldwych

My work here is done. For now.