14 September 2024:

Great photo from 1962 via @heraldsunphoto_retro of POST girl Jenny Boyle admiring the just restored last gas lamp in the city, on Collins Street just down from the Manchester Unity. It was put up in the 1880s outside a chemist, a time when business put up their own lamps. After electric lighting was introduced the 1890s, the Howey Estate (which owned much of the block behind) maintained it, not sure why. Then, when they wound up, presumably in 1962, the Gas & Fuel took it on, and made it operate again. The then Lord Mayor Maurice Nathan relit it in a photo from the Herald Sun archives. The base is the standard 19th C city type, but the shade is more elaborate. With all the traffic and signs these days, it’s easy to miss this old thing, and even harder to tell if it’s on ! Photos 5,6 Alfred Sin on Flickr, then an old photo of a standard one, and a reproduction outside the Block Arcade from streetview.

And here it is in a close up in 1958 from a photo from Museums Victoria – looks like the shade was off for protection, cleaning, or while they wondered what to do about it. Or possibly it disappeared in the 1930s when Albany Court was built, in which case the top is a 1960s repro.

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