There is no single “inventor” of the street light , because street lighting evolved over centuries from open flames to gas and then to electric lamps. However, several key figures and milestones are usually credited with shaping the modern street light.

Early street lighting

  • In the 15th–17th centuries, cities like London and Paris began requiring oil‑ or candle‑lit lanterns hung outside homes or at intersections, creating the first organized public street lighting.
  • In 1588 Paris ordered torches at every intersection , later switching to glass‑windowed lanterns that let more light through.

Gas street lights

  • William Murdoch (sometimes Murdock), a Scottish engineer, pioneered coal‑gas lighting in the 1790s and publicly lit the exterior of the Soho Foundry in Birmingham in 1802.
  • The first gas‑lit street was Pall Mall in London in 1807 , often cited as the birth of modern gas street lighting.

Electric street lights

  • The first practical electric street‑lighting systems used arc lamps in the late 1870s. Paris installed Yablochkov candles on the Place de la Concorde in 1878, making it one of the first cities with electric street lights.
  • In the U.S., Charles F. Brush developed a commercial electric arc‑light system and lit Cleveland’s Public Square in 1879; his fixtures were soon adopted in New York, London, and other cities.

Later refinements

  • Thomas Edison’s incandescent bulb (1879) and similar work by Joseph Swan enabled brighter, more practical electric street lighting that gradually replaced gas and arc lamps.
  • In the 20th century, photoelectric controls and later LEDs (pioneered by Nick Holonyak, Jr.) further modernized street‑light technology for efficiency and automation.

So, while no one person “invented the street light,” figures like William Murdoch (gas) and Charles F. Brush (electric arc) are central to the story of who brought us the street lights we know today.