The most magical job in Britain: Enchanting story of our last gas street lights, and the five men who keep them burning just as they did in Dickens' day

That the gas lamps have survived is partly a tribute to English Heritage, which has protected them

When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge next have an evening engagement, they might consider dismissing their chauffeur and setting out from Kensington Palace on foot.
For on their doorstep is one of the most magical walks in London.

The long avenue of Kensington Palace Gardens, lined with embassies and the mansions of billionaires, is lit only by gas lamps. Their glass heads are a constellation of stars.

It is one of the rare places in the city where a walker can imagine what it might once have been like to walk the capital at night.

These glowing sentry posts are among the last Victorian gas lamps in London. In a city blazing with electricity, with office lights left on all night, these 19th-century survivors offer a glimpse of the city as it was when Charles Dickens wrote his dark and smoggily gripping novels.

There are 1,500 gas lamps left in London — but hundreds of thousands of electric street lights. Westminster alone has 14,000 glaring electric lamps.

But who keeps London’s gas lights burning?

If you were to stand on Lord North Street after dark, around the corner from the Houses of Parliament, you might see a man in blue overalls at the top of a ladder, silhouetted against Big Ben. You could set your watch by it; he sets his lamps by the clock face.

Read more at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2848038/The-magical-job-Britain-Enchanting-story-gas-street-lights-five-men-burning-just-did-Dickens-day.html