The Richardson candle lamp is a unique vertical style of electric

streetlamp A street light, light pole, lamp pole, lamppost, streetlamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or path. Similar lights may be found on a railway platform. When urban electric power distribution b ...

designed for and installed in the

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

in the 1950s. Several examples remain in place in the historic heart of Cambridge, on

Trumpington Street Trumpington Street is a major historic street in central Cambridge, England. At the north end it continues as King's Parade where King's College is located. To the south it continues as Trumpington Road (the A1134), an arterial route out ...

, Silver Street,

King's Parade King's Parade is a street in central Cambridge, England.Bene't Street Bene't Street is a short historic street in central Cambridge, England, the name being derived from St Benedict. There is a junction with King's Parade to the north and Trumpington Street to the south at the western end of the street. Free Scho ...

, Trinity Street, and St John's Street Many were listed by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

at Grade II in 2011 and 2013. According to the listings, "Cambridge is the last city in the UK to retain its own custom-designed lighting stock from the post-war period". The Richardson candle lamp was designed by Sir

Albert Richardson Albert Richardson may refer to: * Albert Richardson (architect) (1880–1964), English architect * Albert Richardson (priest) (1868–1905), English missionary to Africa and India * Albert Richardson (Wisconsin politician) (1864–1937), American po ...

and manufactured by the REVO Electrical Company, based in Tipton, West Midlands. The design was based on the REVO Festival candle lamp, a tall tubular column-mounted lamp designed and installed in Birmingham in 1951 as part of the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Labour Party cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the ...

and which remained in place until the 1990, for example on

Colmore Row Colmore Row is a street in Birmingham City Centre in the centre of Birmingham, England, running from Victoria Square, Birmingham, Victoria Square to just beyond Birmingham Snow Hill railway station, Snow Hill station. It is traditionally the ci ...

. After a trial which reject an off-the-shelf lamp, Richardson was commissioned in 1957, adopting a similar tall and narrow vertical design to echo the perpendicular architectural lines of many historic Gothic Cambridge buildings, but with less decoration than the Festival candle. The vertical tube of the lamp of white translucent

perspex Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a synthetic polymer derived from methyl methacrylate. It is a transparent thermoplastic, used as an engineering plastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and bran ...

is about long and {{cvt, 15, in, cm in diameter, surrounding three or four 80 watt

fluorescent tube A fluorescent lamp, or fluorescent tube, is a low-pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light. An electric current in the gas excites mercury vapor, to produce ultraviolet and make a phosphor ...

s, with a simple cap and base of

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

coloured bronze. From the 2010s,

s were replaced with halide bulbs. A bespoke order of 120 new electric streetlamps was manufactured by REVO, installed in Cambridge in the late 1950s to replace pre-war

gas lamp Gas lighting is the production of artificial light from combustion of a fuel gas such as methane, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, coal gas (town gas) or natural gas. The light is produced either directly by ...

s. There were 56 wall-mounted lamps, mounted with brackets embossed with the word "REVO", and 64 mounted on slim fluted cast iron columns with bronze colouring. Approximately half of them survive. Three examples were stolen in 2024, but two were recovered by police in January 2025. File:Richardson Candle Group At St Catharine's College And Northern Trumpington Street.jpg, Lit Richardson candle, on Trumpington Street near St Catharine's College File:"Richardson Candle" streetlight (1) - geograph.org.uk - 764507.jpg, Column-mounted Richardson candle outside

Gonville and Caius College Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges an ...

, and wall-mounted behind File:Richardson Candle street light in Trinity Street, Cambridge.jpg, Wall-mounted Richardson candle on Trinity Street File:"Richardson Candle" streetlight (4) - geograph.org.uk - 764591.jpg, Streetlamp on St John's Street, near the

Round Church A round church is a church with a completely circular plan, thus a rotunda in architectural terms. There are many Nordic round churches in Sweden and Denmark (notably the island of Bornholm); round churches were popular in Scandinavia in the ...

File:The Eagle, Bene't Street - geograph.org.uk - 797013.jpg, Wall-mounted outside The Eagle on Bene't Street

References

Richardson Candles
capturingcambridge.org
Theft of historic street lamps is 'heritage crime'
BBC News, 8 November 2024
Historical city lamps found in theft investigation
BBC News, 28 January 2025

simoncornwell.com
How Did Candles Light Up Post-War Cambridge?
Historic England * Listings on the National Heritage List for England, Historic England *
Richardson Candle group in St Johns Street and north Trinity Street
*
Richardson Candle wall mounted lamps attached to 16, 19, 24, 27, 35 and 38 Trinity Street
*
Richardson Candle group in Trinity Street including Gonville and Caius College
*
Five wall-mounted Richardson Candles in Kings Parade
*
Four Richardson Candles outside no.s 10, 16, 19 and opposite 19 Trumpington Street
*
Richardson Candle group at St Catharine's College and northern Trumpington Street
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Richardson Candle group in Trumpington Street including the Fitzwilliam Museum
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Three Richardson Candle wall-mounted lamps attached to the south side of Queens’ College, Silver Street
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Three Richardson Candle wall-mounted lamps attached to the north side of the Mill Lane Site on Silver Street
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Richardson Candle street lamp on the south-east corner of Silver Street
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Two Richardson Candle wall-mounted lamps attached to The Old Guildhall on Wheeler Street
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Three Richardson Candle wall-mounted lamps attached to the north side of Bene’t Street

External links

Cambridge's famous Revo "Richardson's Candles"
lighting-gallery.net Street lighting Grade II listed buildings in Cambridge