Gas street lighting used coal gas piped from a central works to lamps that were lit each evening, first installed in London on Pall Mall in 1807 by Frederick Winsor and rolled out across the city's streets through the 1810s. It produced a steadier and far brighter light than the oil lamps it replaced and required a new infrastructure of mains, gasworks and lamplighters. By the mid-century most large European and American cities had gas networks.
Reliable night-time light extended the working and social day into the evening, supporting shops, theatres and a visible night economy. It also reshaped notions of urban safety and policing, and laid the piped-utility networks that later carried water and electricity.