Original post 9 January 2016

Melbourne’s history of streetlamps and a a story little told. The first were gas lamps installed from the 1857, which provided an uncertain flickering glow until the late 1890s when the city installed tall electric electric arc lamps at street corners, noted for their extreme brightness. Then in the 1920s the city decided the lamps themselves should be beautiful, starting with single examples in the Paris end of Collins Street, most still there, and along St Kilda Rd, now gone. They were soon followed by wonderful double headed ones installed on the piers of Princes Bridge in 1926- the design of these was clearly inspired by the street lamps of San Francisco and Los Angeles, also erected in the 1920s. Finally grand freestanding double headed ones were installed on most city streets in 1929.

Sadly, the St Kilda Road ones, and the double headed ones, were removed in the 1960s in favour of modern street lamps, all except two on William Street between Bourke and Collins Street. One of these was dismantled to allow molds to be made, and four reproductions were cast in about 2000, and set up outside the Mint in William Street. It was an expensive endeavour and no more have been built since then.

Some of the removed ones went to new homes in front gardens or in front of institutions, and the style was so popular that (smaller, thinner) reproductions have been available since at least the 1970s.

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