CHARTERED GAS LIGHT AND COKE COMPANY

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0074 B/NTG-9
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: CHARTERED GAS LIGHT AND COKE COMPANY
Date(s)	: 1812-1925 (property records span 1647-1929).
Level of description	: Collection View parent record
Extent	: 28.5 linear metres (extent of whole collection, not this subfonds).
Name of creator(s)	: Gas Light and Coke Company | 1812-1949 x Chartered Gas Light and Coke Company

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

In 1807 Frederick Albert Winsor, a Moravian, issued a prospectus for the grandiose New Patriotic Imperial and National Light and Heat Company. In the same year a group of influential backers, led by James Ludovic Grant, met at the Crown and Anchor in the Strand to try to launch some sort of public venture. At that time any company raising capital by selling shares was deemed a partnership: if it failed, all its members were held personally liable for losses. It was therefore decided to seek a charter by act of Parliament. An initial application in 1809 seeking to raise £1 million failed, largely through opposition by rivals such as Murdock and the younger James Watt. However, a more modest application for £200,000 was successful in 1810, though stringent conditions were attached. By 1810 these had been fulfilled and on 9 June the Gas Light and Coke Company - commonly known as the chartered company - was formally established, with Grant as its first governor. A Charter was granted by the Prince Regent in 1812.

The Company constructed the first operational public gas-works in Peter Street, Horseferry Road, Westminster, and began producing gas in September 1813. The Company absorbed 27 smaller companies and several undertakings during its period of operation, including the Aldgate Gas Light and Coke Company (1819), the Brentford Gas Company (1926), the City of London Gas Light and Coke Company (1870), the Equitable Gas Light Company (1871), the Great Central Gas Consumer's Company (1870), Imperial Gas Light and Coke Company (1876), the Independent Gas Light and Coke Company (1876), the London Gas Light Company (1883), Pinner Gas Company (1930), Richmond Gas Company (1925), Southend-on-Sea and District Gas Company (1932), Victoria Docks Gas Company (1871) and Western Gas Light Company (1873). In May 1949, after the passing of the Gas Bill 1948, the Company handed over its assets to the North Thames Gas Board.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the Chartered Gas Light and Coke Company, including half yearly reports from the Court of Proprietors to the General Assembly; half yearly reports and accounts from the Directors to the Proprietors; correspondence and memoranda; Parliamentary notices; reports; papers relating to stocks and shares; papers relating to legal actions and lawsuits; contracts and agreements; copies of various Parliamentary acts concerning gas companies and public works; proofs, correspondence, briefs, petitions, bills and drafts in Parliamentary transactions; and papers relating to amalgamations with other gas companies.

Also deeds and papers relating to Company offices in the City of London, Chelsea, Hackney, Islington, Kensington, Lambeth, Paddington, Marylebone, Saint Pancras, Stepney, Westminster, Finsbury, Poplar, Shoreditch and Millbank.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Corporate records: B/NTG/1864-1988, 2006-2010;
Financial records: B/NTG/1989-1995, 2011-2059;
Property records: B/NTG/1996-2000, 2011-2059;
Production records: B/NTG/2001-2005, 2068-2074;
Legal records: B/NTG/2060-2066, 2075-2232.

Conditions governing access:

Available for general access.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright to these records rests with the depositor.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Deposited in multiple accessions in 1957 and 1958.

Allied Materials

Related material:

For other records of the Chartered Gas Light and Coke Company see references B/GLCC and LMA/4438 - the latter contains a more detailed history of the company. See also ACC/2216 for more historical information relating to Frederick Albert Winsor and the foundation of the company.

Publication note:

For further information about gas companies and works see: E.G.Stewart, Historical Index of Gasworks past and present in the area now served by the North Thames Gas Board, 1806-1957 (1957) and Supplement to the Historical Index of Gasworks (1970); LMA Library reference 24.41 NTGB; and Stirling Everard, The History of the Gas Light and Coke Company (1949), LMA Library reference 24.41 EVE. Other works relating to the history of gas supply can also be found at reference 24.4.

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
November 2009 to February 2010