Ghosts of London past ... A laneway lit by the warm glow of lamps, first introduced as a public safety innovation in London in the 1800s. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: News Corp Australia

It’s not that the British Gas engineer operations manager wants to see chaos, more just the chance for Londoners to appreciate what he does quietly and diligently in the capital each night.

Bell is a rare breed these days, one of only four men who still performs a job each night that dates back two centuries, to a Dickensian era where gas lamps had to be manually lit across the city to keep its citizens safe.

“We sometimes joke we’d like to see a power-out that way these can be seen in all their glory,” he says proudly, admiringly patting a 200-year-old gas lamp post on a narrow mellow-lit lane.

English icon ... British gas engineer Garry Usher go out each nightand check, clean and adjust gas lamps around London. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: News Corp Australia

Most tourists and even locals may not realise it but London still has 1500 gas lamps and its Bell and his team of three “lamplighters” armed with ladders that today keep those gas flames burning across city parks, about Westminster and the Houses of Parliament, Covent Garden, Buckingham Palace but also whole streets affronting ordinary homes.

News Corp Australia was invited on the night shift through London as the men, silhouetted against the evening sky shimmy up ladders to correct pilot flames, wind on timers or fix mantles that turn a live gas flame into the strong but mellow 38 watt glow.

Memory lane ... Illuminating Goodwin's Lane with its traditional bow windows and cobbled paths, dating from 1690. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: News Corp Australia

“It’s a softer light than the harsher electric ones, a bit more mellow but people may walk by and not know,” Bell, 45, said yesterday.

“There are whole streets purely lit by gas lamps. The reason they are still here is a lot of the lamp posts are protected by English Heritage (cultural preservation agency) … and also because people want it. When streets were widened or modernised it was easy to take out the gas lamps and put in an electric one but you lost that heritage of what London was like in the 1800s, early 1900s. There were hundreds more, it’s part of our history and thankfully we have 1500 left.”

Such were the lamppost value, they were individually branded with the seal of the reigning monarch of the day and some are actually converted cannons seized from warships after victories against the Spanish and French.

English icon ... A George 4th lamp post, the oldest remaining operational, with its Grosvenor lamp. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: News Corp Australia

Bell said depending on the season his four-man team including himself go out each night from 3.30pm and check, clean and adjust all their gas lamps with it taking two weeks (about 25 lamps a day) to do all before they start again. They no longer need to carry burning torches to light the lamps with a pilot flame on a battery or clock timer dating back to 1865 or more modern electric current lighting most automatically.

These days the lamps also use piped natural gas but 200 years ago, from the first in 1807, they were fuelled by gas from coal-burning gas emissions piped through mud-clad wooden pipes. The introduction of the gas lamps dramatically changed the city by making it safe to walk at night even though many feared the then new technology.

Time machine ... British gas engineers Iain Bell and Garry Usher go out each night from 3.30pm and check, clean and adjust gas lamps around London. There are still 1500 gas lamps left the late 1800s early 1900s. The inside of a lamp with the timer. Pic Ella Pellegrini Source: News Corp Australia

“I just love it,” Bell said of his job as he held the ladder for colleague Garry Usher in the narrow Goodwin’s Court laneway that has barely changed since 1690. “I didn’t even know they existed even after 20 years with British Gas before they asked me to take this role. We go about our business pretty much unnoticed. But it is the best job, these are antiques and I go about London doing my business and I’m sightseeing at the same time.”

Hand crafted ... British gas engineers Iain Bell and Garry Usher are among those still tending 1500 gas lamps from the late 1800s to early 1900s. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: News Corp Australia