Although street lighting had been installed in Reading in 1797, the system used was one of lamps attached to the sides of buildings and as a consequence open spaces remained unlit.

The structure was immediately controversial, denounced within weeks of its opening as "a paltry gew-gaw thing without use, or name", built by Simeon to promote himself rather than for the public benefit.

[3] Located on the Great West Road, the main route connecting London to Bath and Bristol, and with the Thames providing direct shipping routes to London and Oxford, the city grew prosperous and became a major industrial centre, particularly noted for its iron production and breweries, as well as a major market town for the surrounding area.

[8] After a successful early career designing country houses, on 16 October 1788 he was appointed architect and surveyor to the Bank of England.

The erection will contribute largely to prevent the confusion which now prevails with the wagons on market days by obliging the drivers to take a regular line.

[1][10]Austwick approved Simeon's plan, and John Soane was approached to design an obelisk with the dual purpose of acting as an obstruction to prevent wagons driving across Market Place, and holding four lamps to illuminate the area.

[18] Bricklayer J Lovegrove built the brick core of the base, James Marshall was stonemason, and Thomas Russell the blacksmith.

[22] The base of the structure was adorned with a large metal plaque reading: Erectedand Lighted for everat the expence ofEdward Simeon Esqr.As a mark of affectionto his Native TownA.D.1804.Lancelot Austwick Esqr.Mayor.On the remaining two sides are bronze works, one consisting of the arms of Simeon, the other showing a crowned head surrounded by four uncrowned heads.

There was no unveiling ceremony for the monument and the date its lamps were first lit is not recorded, but the stonework was complete by the time Soane inspected it on 3 September 1804.

[25][G] The monument proved immediately controversial; a letter published in the Reading Mercury on 24 September accused Simeon of attempting to "bias the heads of the Borough in his favour by setting up in the market-place a paltry gew-gaw thing without use, or name",[24] and stating that "Some denominate it an obelisk, others a pillar, but among the generality of the inhabitants it is called a p****** post",[11] referring to its use as an object to urinate on.

[20] At this time the lamps were not yet in place, and it is possible that the anonymous critic (likely to have been local historian John Man[11]) was not aware that the structure was intended as a lamp-post to illuminate the market, and thought that Simeon had erected the column as a monument to himself.

[11] During the planning and construction of the monument, Edward Simeon had commissioned what he described as "a variety of experiments ... to produce the most effectual and brilliant light".

[28] Some felt its design was inappropriate, and as early as September 1804 an anonymous correspondent to the Reading Mercury described it as "A spruce pedestal of Wedgwood Ware, where motley arms and tawdry emblems glare", and sarcastically referred to the monument as "the eighth wonder of the world".

[25][K] John Man, describing Market Place in his 1810 A Stranger in Reading, wrote that: Nearly in the centre is a large stone lamp post, if such it may be called, of a triangular form, to correspond, I suppose, with that of the Market-place, but of what order of architecture, I was not able to discover; some of the ornaments however are British, some Roman, and some Egyptian.

The base, or pedestal, is, as you may conclude from its shape, divided into three compartments, in one of which, composed of the same kind of gingerbread work I mentioned before, are the town arms, consisting of five maidens' heads placed lozenge wise, the middle one crowned, the others ornamented with garlands of flowers; but I was informed by a great antiquary, who resides here, that this was not correct, the original arms having been five maidens' heads, veiled as nuns, and not in the meretricious dresses they are here represented; as to the middle one being crowned, he says, it was only introduced in compliment to Queen Elizabeth, who was a great benefactress to the town, and consequently might very well now be omitted.

At each corner of the pedestal is a large lamp, for the maintenance whereof, for ever, I am told, the founder has funded a sufficient sum of money in annuities, under the management of the Corporation.

As it was built to illuminate the market and divert the flow of traffic, rather than to officially commemorate any person or event, it is not strictly a monument; as it is a triangular rather than a square structure, it is not technically an obelisk; it was commissioned by Simeon and designed by Soane.

[34] By 1900 a cabmen's shelter had been constructed next to the monument, later used as a hut the attendants of a car park opened next to the obelisk to serve the market.

[14] Although Soane's designs had become unpopular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and most of his buildings had been demolished or significantly altered,[36] following his championing by Nikolaus Pevsner from the 1950s onwards attitudes began to slowly change.