The lamps are going out all over Britain

BRITAIN WAS one of the first countries to light its streets at night. In 1782 Karl Philipp Moritz, a German essayist, was astounded by the “festive illumination” of London; a visiting German prince thought the lamps had been lit for his benefit. But Britain has also been ambivalent about providing light. Whereas streetlamps in Paris expressed state power (hence revolutionaries hanging their enemies from them), street lighting in Britain was often the responsibility of households and businesses. Even today, local authorities are not legally required to light the streets.

Outside big cities, they are doing so less. Over the past decade councils have replaced sodium-vapour lamps with light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which use less energy and can cast light precisely on the pavement. They seldom run on full power. Since 2009 Hampshire has gone from dimming its lights by 25% in the middle of the night, to dimming them by 65%, to switching them off in residential areas. North Yorkshire is beginning to permit residential developments without streetlights.