London District Telegraph Company

Its original Chairman was the banker and Member of Parliament Samuel Gurney (1816–1882).

[2] It used a combination of underground and overhead wires and saved money by avoiding the need for an Act of Parliament to authorise its activities.

The overhead wires, however, required negotiation with individual households and landowners and were vulnerable to damage in bad weather.

In 1860 the company agreed with the Astronomer Royal to relay the Greenwich Observatory time-signal to all of its offices.

[1] The company issued a number of telegraph stamps which are of interest to philatelists.