Holló Szilvia Andrea: Budapest's Public Works - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)
From gashouse to natural gas mains
the water mains and drainage systems were under gradual development. At the outbreak of World War II, measures of wartime economy were introduced, and in 1942 the various services were brought under one consolidated administration; the unified management of the gas and water works was terminated in the summer of 1945. Act XXVI of 1949 chartered the exact area of Budapest. Expanded to three times its original size, the capital city now included neighbourhoods at widely different levels of development, areas whose technological equipment was now to be brought to roughly the same standard of performance. It was a task truly monumental in its dimensions. Although the companies could not rise to the challenge in all of its ramifications, they did score a number of impressive victories in terms of modernising street illumination, switching to the use of natural gas, and joining the great international systems of distributing energy resources. Public utilities worked as state- owned companies under the management of local councils between 1950 and 1990, after which a new era of privatization commenced. From gashouse to natural gas mains It must have been a major enterprise to walk on benighted streets at a time when robbers lurked in doorways waiting for their victims, and when holes pitting the pavements everywhere threatened with a broken ankle the unsuspecting passer-by, who could also always count on having a chamber pot emptied on his head from a window above. It must have been such daily risks that planted the idea of street lighting in the heads of medieval men and women. Paris is believed to have been the first European metropolis, in 1558, to have regular, self-standing street illumination installed to protect its citizens venturing out on a journey after nightfall. In most cities, however, the only lighting was provided by a floating wick flickering in the doorway of one or another of the wealthier households, and those who could afford to do so would hire a lamp-bearing boy for escort. Until the end of the 17th century it was the Turks rather than the dark streets that meant the greatest nuisance to the residents of Buda. With life slowly returning to normal on the ruins of the city, a curfew after nine at night was imposed by the Pest Council to prevent crime and accidents. Urban life could not, however, be banned under the pretext of guarding public safety. A more humane solution to the problem was required. The implementation of municipal lighting was formally undertaken on Maria Theresa’s orders, but it took five years (and the relocation of the University of Nagyszombat to the Buda Castle) before the first street light in Buda, an oakum wick7
