Lamp posts and street decor

How it is calculated

History and fun facts

Street lighting: from oil lamp to LED

For a long time streets were simply dark at night. If you had to go out, you carried a torch or a lantern. In the 17th century towns got fixed oil street lamps. In Amsterdam the painter and inventor Jan van der Heyden designed an improved oil lamp around 1669, and the city then became one of the first with a whole network of street lamps. Gas light came in the 19th century, electric light around 1900, and today most new street lamps are LED.

• In London gas street lighting was already burning on Pall Mall in 1807.
• Gas lamps were lit every evening by a lamplighter. The small crossbars under many Victorian lamps were handy for resting his ladder against.
• Paris is often called the City of Light, partly because of its early and extensive street lighting.
• Modern LED lamps can be dimmed and aimed, so less light leaks into the night sky.

Japanese stone lanterns (tōrō)

Tōrō are stone or bronze lanterns that came to Japan via China and Korea. At first they stood at Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, where they held a small light as an offering. Later they became a regular part of Japanese gardens. Each part has a name: foot, pillar, platform, light chamber, roof and knob.

• Kasuga Shrine in Nara has about three thousand lanterns. The kasuga style is named after this shrine.
• Yukimi means snow viewing: the wide roof catches a nice layer of snow.
• The famous Kotoji lantern in the Kenroku-en garden in Kanazawa stands on two legs of different lengths.

Benches, wells and market stalls

The Romans already made stone benches in a half circle, the exedra, where people sat together to talk. Public park benches became common in the 19th century, when cities laid out large parks. Before piped water, everyone fetched water from a well on the square, with a bucket on a rope or chain and often a winch with a crank. Markets only really became important in the Middle Ages when a town was granted market rights by its lord or ruler.

• The well was often the place where the village news was shared.
• A small roof over a well kept leaves and dirt out of the water.
• Striped awnings on markets stand out, so you recognise a stall from afar.

Mailboxes, clocks and signposts

The British red pillar box first appeared on the island of Jersey in 1852. The writer Anthony Trollope, who worked for the Post Office, had seen the idea in France. In the United States farmers in the countryside got mail delivered from 1896, and that is where the mailbox on a post with a little flag comes from. Street clocks were often put up by jewellers and banks, as advertising and as a handy clock for everyone. Signposts with arms have stood along roads for centuries; in England they are called fingerposts.

• For a while many British pillar boxes were green. Red only became the standard colour later.
• The flag on an American mailbox tells the mail carrier there is post to collect.
• Before everyone had a watch, you checked the street clock or the church tower to see the time.

Shelters and bandstands

With the horse tram and later the electric tram, fixed stops appeared in the 19th century, often with a wooden waiting hut. Bandstands became popular in 19th-century city parks. Brass bands and orchestras played there on Sunday afternoons, and the roof with open sides carried the sound in every direction.

• Many Dutch towns and villages still have a bandstand from that time.
• An octagon is easy to build and sounds about equally good in every direction.
• Glass bus shelters are a fairly new invention of the 20th century.