Five years, merely a few brief pages turning on a calendar, insignificant to the passage of time.
But for a city in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, it was enough to cause foundational shifts, street name changes, and population replacements, transforming it dramatically.
Five years ago, gas lamps were merely rare curiosities adorning the central regions of London. For most streets, whenever it rained at night, a grey mist would engulf and obliterate the streets along the Thames River.
But now?
From Greenwich to Paddington, from Charing Cross to Hyde Park, when the hour hand on the pocket watch crosses six, the gaslight acts like a neural network awakening this most modern city in the world from the slumber of night. Nightlife, it's a fashionable new term, but for the fast-paced London citizens, it's long been no novelty.
