Prior to the establishment of the Phoenix Gas Light & Coke Company in 1824, the London Coal Gas business was established on Bankside. In the early 19th century the new phenomenon of gas-lit street lighting seized Londoners’ imaginations, beginning with experimental lighting in Pall Mall. The image is based on a quote by the chemist Sir Humphry Davy (1815) who remarked that the rapid expansion of gas production and storage on Bankside might well require the conversion of St Paul’s dome into a gasometer!
