Grace's Guide
British Industrial History
Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 134,028 pages of information and 213,093 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.
Grosvenor Gallery Electric Supply Corporation
From Graces Guide
1885 Sir Coutts Lindsay and others, in the course of alterations to the Grosvenor Gallery, installed electric lighting supplied from an engine-generator at the rear of the premises[1], and went on to supply neighbouring trade premises.
After the first design failed to work effectively Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti was brought in to overhaul the station and distributing system. Experience at the Grosvenor Gallery demonstrated the practical feasibility of Ferranti's ideas.
1886 The Select Committee was told that, at that time, there was only one central electricity supply station in the UK, one that had been established and worked without any statutory authority by Sir Coutts Lindsay and Co, at the rear of the Grosvenor Gallery; this supplied no more than 6000 lamps[2].
1887 Due to fire associated with the accumulator at a customer's premises in Regent St, an errand boy was sent to cut the wires carrying current but fell to his death from the roof; the company's engineer denied that the electricity would have given more than a slight shock and said that, although the insulation had been removed, the wires had not been cut[3]
1887 Woodhouse and Rawson had done all of the overhead installation work for Sir Coutts Lindsay and Co[4]; the system was being extended from 5000 to 40000 lamps.
1887 London Electric Supply Corporation took over the Grosvenor Gallery Electric Supply Corporation, London's first commercial electric power supplier[5]