Ancient Lights

I'd first noticed this curious sign on the side of a pub in Wimbledon but on a recent walk around the Covent Garden area - and with a bit of poking about in some of the side alleys - I found another example. They obviously serve some legal point and the fact that the signage is so bold certainly makes them stick out, so it was on to Google for a bit of research...

The origins for these signs can be found in English Common Law and the legal right to access light. Of course Wikipedia seems to have the most 'illuminating' (boom, boom!) definition on the web which tells you all you ever needed or wanted to know, but that's not much fun for me just to point you there so I'm going to summarise it anyway...  

On the side of The Rose & Crown, Wimbledon

There doesn't seem to have been any specific right for a building to access light before about 1832 and presumably as glass windows were a thing for the wealthy and often subject to tax, it wouldn't have been much of an issue before then anyway. On the contrary, in fact, bricking-in windows seems to have been the norm rather than fighting for natural light. It was The Prescription Act (1832) which introduced Ancient Lights and basically said that if someone had been enjoying light through a window for a minimum of 20 years then they could effectively block any attempt to build in front of it if the new building diminished the amount of light they received and caused them a nuisance.

One interesting section of the Act said that the owner could enlarge the window, but the enlarged section itself would also have to remain unblocked for 20 years before it attained the same Ancient Light rights. In the meantime the neighbours could erect a screen to block off light to the enlarged section but not the existing Ancient Lights portion in order to prevent granting of the new rights!

 

Alley in the vicinity of Leicester Square

Needless to say defining exactly how much light can be obscured before your Ancient Light has been shaded to the point of being a nuisance seems to be a point of much debate and discussion!

The American Legal System took a more pragmatic approach, which might explain the proliferation of towering skyscrapers on Manhattan

The doctrine of ancient lights has not been adopted in the United States since it would greatly hinder commercial and residential growth and the expansion of towns and cities. - West's Encyclopedia of American Law