May's Item of the Month: Guiding Lights

Important information for visitors

Until summer 2025, there is a new visitor route at the National Maritime Museum while we carry out essential improvements to the Museum's roof. Most galleries will still be open as normal, and special exhibitions are currently free for all visitors. However, the Great Map and AHOY! will be closed for the duration of the works. Find out more.

Essential Information

Location	National Maritime Museum

02 May 2014

May's Item of the month is a guest Item of the month. The new Museum exhibition Guiding Lights, celebrates 500 years of Trinity House, the authority for Light Houses in England and Wales. Exhibition Curator Gillian Hutchinson takes a closer look at a rare book, A Narrative of the building and a description of the construction of the Edystone [sic] lighthouse with stone, by John Smeaton, Civil Engineer, F.R.S., 1791.

John Smeaton had never built a Light House. So when the previous Eddystone Light House (off the Devon/Cornwall coast) burned down in 1755, he literally started from scratch and built a new one that lasted until the Victorians dismantled it in 1877. It was then re-erected on Plymouth Hoe where it still stands today. So, if you've ever wondered how a Light house was built (or dismantled!) and what they have in common with a London kerbstone, here's your answer