16 July 2026

In June author and local resident Linda Hantrais presented the second talk of a three-part series exploring the history and surroundings of Monck Street, following on from her November 2025 talk about the Westminster Tobacco Box. (The third talk is being planned for later this year!)

With readings by actor and playwright James Knudsen, the talk discusses the gasworks which were situated between Monck Street and Marsham Street, where the Home Office stands today. Linda explains how, in 1813, with the mission of reducing the amount of criminality “greatly owing to the insufficient lighting of the streets”, the Gas Light and Coke Company came to be constructed in the heart of the City of Westminster, providing “the first public supply of gas in the world”.

You can either play the video in the embedded video player below, or you can view it in a standalone browser tab (or the YouTube app, if you have it installed) here.

Note: some parts of the audio recording from the evening might be a little difficult to make out, so we recommend turning on the subtitles (captions). If they obscure anything on screen, you can always toggle them off and on again, combining with pause and rewind if needed!

Many thanks again to Linda for her support and research, and to Westminster Archives, who hosted the event (as well as providing a lot of the source material).