John Breillat

1770-1856

John Breillat was a silk dyer who moved to Bristol from London in 1811.  By 1816, after seeing a demonstration of gas lighting in Birmingham, he set up the Bristol Gas Lighting Company.  By 1820 this company was lighting most of the city's main streets with coal gas.

John Breillat is buried here at Arnos Vale and his story features in one of the Guided Tours around the cemetery.

The Evening Post ran an extremely interesting article about John Breillat, his company and the history of lighting last week.   If you want to know more about this amazing entrepeneural man then click here for the Evening Post article.