Electricity

In 1889, Leicester Corporation, knowing that several private companies were likely to apply to the Board of Trade for permission to supply the borough with electricity, obtained such permission for itself. At first electricity was only supplied to the commercial and business quarter in the centre of the town, and in that area the supply began in 1894. The electricity works were situated by the gas works on the Aylestone Road site and were controlled by the gas committee of the council. (Quoted from British History Online).

As can be seen from this map, electricity was provided to the city and county by numerous different companies, a situation that didn't change until after WW2. This was also the case for gas provision.

The average home in Leicester was lit by gas mantles and heated by coal fires. Gradually, as the provision of electricity became cheaper, even the smallest houses started to have it installed. Ronald Harrison recalls gas mantles in the home:

Can you tell me about the gas lamp? How would you light it? Was there was there a switch anywhere on the wall?

No, there were two chains. One, you pulled on a piece of iron and it sloped like that. You pulled it down to put it on and pulled the other one to put it off. And you had a taper, which you lit with a match and just hold it up. I suppose it lasted you about a week, then you'd have to have a new one because it could get that short you couldn't reach.

How much light did these things give out?

Not a lot. It was a very poor light, really.

Or did it smell?

No, funnily enough, it didn't. Only if you left it on too long or you lit it, you know?

How many rooms in the house had gas lights? Did you have them upstairs as well?

Oh yes. But I never remember having the gas lamp, we always used to go to bed with a candle. We never used to have the light in the upstairs one. Of course, as soon as the electric came in, we had the electric put in.

Matt Pearson was an apprentice electrical engineer in the 1930s at TH Wathes, who started in the Singer/Coronation Buildings on the High Street. He recalls fitting many houses with electricity for £1 a point.

When Charles Street was built in the 1930s, the new municipal buildings hosted an electricity showroom where all the latest modern applicances could be hired or bought. You can see a photo of this on the Story of Leicester website.

TH Wathes did a lot of work with refrigeration and supplied Frigidaire products. Matt Pearson recalls having to deal with ammonia and sulphur dioxide as part of his work.