Georgian

Utilities

Street Paving

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Street Paving

Until 1785, the street of Reading were in a very bad state. No one person was in charge of keeping the roads and pavements under repair, instead each house was responsible for the piece of road and pavement outside their own house. This meant that some sections were well looked after, while other sections were full of holes and puddles. The Mayor, John Deane, decided that it was time to improve the roads, and applied for an Act of Parliament to pave the streets. Not everyone agreed with him, with the town split between those who wanted new paving and those who did not. Eventually an Act of Parliament was passed, in June, and a Paving Commissioner appointed to organise the paving of the streets. .By August, the first paving stone was ready to be laid, outside the Mayors house in Castle Street. Afterwards there was a procession and a dinner at The Ship Inn.

By 1791 most of the main streets in the town were paved. There were still only three street lights in the town, apart from those provided by the owners of the houses beside the streets. So the Paving Commissioner started work on Lighting the streets and by 1801 all of the main streets were illuminated by 174 oil lamps.