Statute Law Repeals - Law Commission - Ministry of Justice

6.77 The works in question included constructing and widening streets and pulling
down buildings to improve public access to St James’s Park and the Houses of
Parliament. The works were authorised by an Act of 1852 137 which gave the
Commissioners compulsory purchase powers to acquire land and buildings for
these purposes. These compulsory purchase powers, as extended by an Act of
1853, 138 were time-limited and would have expired after 4 August 1857. The
preamble to the 1857 Act recorded that these powers were still required and
therefore needed to be extended. Accordingly the 1857 Act extended the powers
until 4 August 1859. No further extension was granted and the 1857 Act ceased
to have effect after that date.
GROUP 3 – LONDON GASLIGHT ACTS
London Gaslight Acts 1852, 1857, 1866 and 1880
6.78 The origins of the gas industry lay with the discovery of coal gas in the early 18 th
century. Gas lighting for homes, buildings and streets was pioneered by a
Scottish engineer, William Murdoch, and his pupil, Samuel Clegg. Murdoch first
used coal gas in 1792 to light his home in Redruth, Cornwall. By the early 1800s
Murdoch was building gas works for the illumination of mills and factories. The
first public street gas lighting was demonstrated in Pall Mall in central London in
January 1807 by the German inventor, Frederick Winsor. The Gas Light and
Coke Company, the first gas undertaking in the world, was incorporated by Royal
Charter in 1812. Westminster Bridge was illuminated by gas on New Year’s Eve
1813.
6.79 Gas lighting proved a great success. Gas produced a much brighter light than
that obtainable from candles or oil lamps, and was safer and cheaper than either.
The installation of gas lamps in the streets made towns safer after dark and
helped to reduce crime. Gas lighting in factories helped to increase production
especially during the winter months. By 1823 many towns in Britain had gas
lighting in their homes, factories and streets. By 1830 two hundred gas
companies had been established, a number rising to nearly one thousand by
1860. One of these was the London Gaslight Company.
6.80 The London Gaslight Company (“the Company”) was incorporated under that
name by an Act of 1844. 139 The four Acts relating to the Company that are now
proposed for repeal related to the early structure, finance and trading of the
Company.
137 Pimlico Improvement Act 1852 (15 & 16 Vict. c.78).
138 Pimlico Improvement Act 1853 (16 & 17 Vict. c.44).
139
7 & 8 Vict. c.xcv (London Gaslight Company). This Act was repealed, with savings, by the
London Gaslight Act 1852.
192