London, 1838: Gaslight, Empire, and the Kindred of Victorian Albion #3

London by Gaslight

Darkness still rules much of London, but it no longer rules completely.

Gas lighting had appeared experimentally in London as early as 1807. By the 1820s, the city reportedly had around 50,000 gas lamps connected through hundreds of miles of pipes, and by 1842 most major London streets were illuminated.

So, London in 1838 should not be imagined as uniformly black after sunset.

The great roads glow.

Shop windows remain visible.

Theaters empty crowds into illuminated streets.

Lamplighters make their rounds.

Carriages move through pools of yellow light.

And between those pools, a darkness.

Side streets, courtyards, riverside stairs, neglected neighborhoods and narrow alleys may still become almost entirely black.

For a Vampire: The Masquerade LARP, that contrast is perfect.

The gas lamp does not destroy the darkness.

It gives the darkness edges.

A figure standing beneath a lamp can be clearly seen.

The figure watching him from twenty feet farther down the alley cannot.

Smoke, Fog and the Smell of London

The romantic image of Victorian fog has a decidedly unpleasant reality behind it.

Coal smoke poured constantly from fireplaces, workshops and factories. Waste disposal and sanitation remained inadequate for London's growing population. Cesspits, refuse, horse manure, slaughterhouse waste and polluted waterways all contributed to the city's smell.

London's notorious Great Stink would not occur until 1858, and the great sewer works associated with it belong later in Victoria's reign. The underlying problems, however, were already very much present in 1838.

The Thames remains London's great highway.

It is also increasingly its sewer.

For Victorian Albion, the river is therefore more than scenery.

Ships arrive carrying merchants, sailors, immigrants, contraband and news from across Europe and the world. Barges move cargo through the night. Warehouses line the banks. Ferrymen know places where respectable gentlemen do not go.

And beneath the bridges and wharves are countless places where something can disappear.

The Nosferatu understand this London particularly well.