The first public gas street lighting installed in 1807 was in London.
The demonstration took place on Pall Mall, where German-born inventor and entrepreneur Frederick Albert Winsor used coal gas to illuminate public street lamps. The display showed that gas could be manufactured centrally and distributed through pipes, rather than relying on individually filled oil lamps or candles.
Coal gas was made by heating coal in the absence of air. It burned with a brighter, steadier flame than traditional street lighting and quickly attracted attention in London. Pall Mall’s experiment helped build support for a permanent urban gas network, although the city’s full expansion required new gasworks and underground piping.
London is sometimes confused with Birmingham, where William Murdoch had earlier demonstrated gas lighting at the Soho Foundry, or with Baltimore, the first American city to receive gas street lighting. London’s 1807 event was a public street-lighting demonstration, not the first use of gas for any purpose. The city’s first public gasworks opened later, in Westminster, in 1813.