Gas Street Central

Following a tender in 1816 by the Street Commissioners for the provision of gas street lighting the only respondent, John Gosling of London, was engaged to supply 10 streets. He formed the Birmingham Gas Light and Coke Company and built his first works on Gas Street in 1817-18 using gas plant installed by Samuel Clegg, the first expert in gas engineering. Clegg was apprenticed to William Murdoch at the Boulton and Watt Company and in 1813 was the first engineer at the Chartered Gas Light and Coke Company, building the first public gas works in Westminster. The retort house, the place where the town gas was manufactured by heating coal in the absence of air, was built next to the canal in…