LONDON'S HERITAGE KEPT ALIVE BY UPMINSTER RESIDENT - A LITTLE STORY A lot of the time in politics, you don’t see the outcome of things you worked on until years down the line. But it is such a joy when you see those positive results. A really quirky one revealed itself this week in a random way. I was out on College Green in Westminster with constituent, Alan Smith, to speak to the BBC about his campaign on firework regulation and our latest meeting with the Minister. A man came up to me and asked if I was Julia Lopez. His name was Aran and it turned out he lives in Upminster. He explained that he’s one of London’s four remaining lamp lighters - people who look after the 1100 gas lamps that still operate in the capital. Aran started life as a British Gas engineer and now preserves this amazing network of heritage lamps in our capital city - the first street lamps in the world, some of which date from the 1800s. Those lamps are only still in operation because a few years ago, a campaign was set up to stop Westminster City Council replacing these heritage assets with LED lighting. The Gasketeers, as the campaign group became known, fought the proposals hard, to the point where the issue reached parliament. When the time came for the debate, I was the Minister who had to answer on behalf of the government. The lamps were eventually saved, a beautiful reminder of our heritage and the fact that so many modern innovations have their roots in London, a city of firsts. As I discovered when preparing for the debate, the man behind the Gasketeer campaign is a guy called Tim Bryars. I knew Tim from years back because I helped his campaign to save the antiquarian map and booksellers of Cecil Court, before I was an MP. Today, those merchants still remain as one of the specialist heritage shopping streets that give London character and I ended up buying a beautiful, 1816 silk pocket map of the city from Tim as a memento. It was a pleasure to meet Aran on College Green, hear about the work he does every day to preserve our rich heritage and to remember that debate and the connection to Tim and his two brilliant campaigns. I am glad to have played a small role in protecting and celebrating our city’s history, and was not expecting to see the result this week, as Aran went about his role as a London lamplighter. @London_lamplighters @TimBryars