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By the passing of the Act of 1888, however, an impetus has been
given to Electric Lighting undertakings, owing to the fact that the
period in which a Company can be bought out by the Local Authority
compulsorily is extended from 21 to 42 years. The same Act provides
that no Provisional Order shall be granted by the Board of Trade,
except with the consent of the Local Authority of the district to which
such order relates, unless the Board of Trade is of opinion that such
consent should be dispensed with.
This hasty review of the Electric Light question in Islington would
be incomplete were no mention to be made of the installation now at
work in a limited area in the Holloway Road. In 1890, Mr. W. Beale,
of 370 and 372, Holloway Road, made application to the Vestry for
permission to lay electric lines under the footway in the Holloway Road
from his premises to the "Nag's Head" public house, with a view to
supplying the Electric Light to certain premises abutting on such
footway. This application was granted by the Vestry solely as a Highway
Authority, and not as a Local Authority under the Electric
Lighting Acts. A further application by Mr. Beale for permission to
fix 18 arc lamps on the footway on the north-east side of Holloway
Road, between the north side of Lister Mews and the north-west side
of Seven Sisters Road, and to lay the necessary mains for the purpose
of supplying electricity to such lamps, was granted by the Vestry, and
an agreement, embodying the conditions imposed by the Vestry in
acceding to these applications, was entered into by Mr. Beale. It soon
became apparent, however, that the undertaking in the Holloway Road
was in reality being carried out by Messrs. Sharpe & Kent, Engineers
and Electricians, of 34, Victoria Street, S.W., who sought to have the
agreement with Mr. Beale assigned to them, a course to which the
Vestry did not agree. These gentlemen at the same time applied to
the Vestry for its consent to the granting of a provisional order to them
for the whole of the parish; but the Vestry declined to consent to an
order for a larger area than that supplied by the promoters at that
time, which was described in the resolution passed by the Vestry as
follows:—"The north-east side of Holloway Road, in the Parish of
"St. Mary, Islington, from Lister Mews to the north-west corner of