With the extravagant Royal Courts of Justice in the background, this lampstand would always have to be elaborate to compete. However, there's a reason behind some of the ornamentation: it incorporates ventilation for the public toilets below.
The lampstand was made by Walter Macfarlane & Co of Glasgow, responsible for much of Britain's Victorian ironwork. This design was an adapted 'lamp pillar no. 5': the standard design, as once visible in Holborn, had neither vents nor buttressing.
