London Bridge Tower Night Sodium Street Light
Message recently received..
Dear Lampy
I’ve spent some of the day flicking through the pages of your blog and it’s amused me no end.
I used to think (and still do) of lamposts as characters. The old English lanterns (I live in Canada now) used to have so much about them. I totally get the dinosaur references and the affable columns!
Great blog mate. I do hope that you update soon.
BTW… have you ever checked out Welwyn Garden City? I think you would like it there. The town centre is full of very peculiar streetlamps; they are like tall post-top things complete with pointy hats. I happen to know that they were installed in 1959/1960 but I have never seen them anywhere else in the UK. Digswell Road is nice too, there are some good old fashioned sodiums there and if you did down into some of the residential areas you will find some awesome old concretes dating from the fifties and sixties.
Anyway…. thanks for a great site.
Stay happy Lampy 
)
M (name supplied).
Lampy replies
Thanks! It’s true! Lamps have character! And the oldest ones, rather like wine and literature, are the best, the new ones are like modern celebrities – skinny, talentless and dull. And lamp-posts should be anything but dull! (c:
Lampy has been photographing surviving old lampies, and intends to publish some goodies. Alas, there are many demands on his time at the mo, and so the lamp-fan blog is being updated less frequently than is ideal. However, lampy is pleased to put up a quick trio of images from his recent trip to London. Some spectacular night shots no less, to kick off 2011!
London lamp post sodium goose neck
These photos were taken just south of the Thames river, by Waterloo railway station. In the background you can see, under construction, the London Bridge Tower, also known as The Shard.
Sodium goose neck yelow light at night
These were taken on 6th January 2011.
London Bridge Tower The Shard of Glass construction at night
Lampy posits that the photos make a fun contrast of a humble old sodium goose neck street light and a monstrous new tower that’s under construction.
P.S what’s taking some of lampy’s time? New invention – the Culica
Nottingham Relics Update
Lampy wondered what the original lanterns were of the Nottingham Relics.
Nottingham Relick lamp post
Above is one of the relic shots from that page.
Below are answers about the lantern, thanks to members of the Streetlighting UK Yahoo group. (Please note that the below six images in this post are not mine (Lampy’s), so the copyright of those images belongs to others).
BTH Urban Enclosed Lantern clear bowl
Catalogue Number Lamp Watts Holder Height in. Diameter in. Weight lb. ST.277 (Top Entry) 300/500 Tungsten G.E.S 18 14 18¼
ST.305 (Side Entry) 300/500 Tungsten G.E.S 18 14 18¼
Above and below are pictures of the lantern that was once installed on the Nottingham Relics, as per the original catalogue.
Urban Enclosed Lantern with refractor bowl
Catalogue Number Lamp Watts Holder Height in. Diameter in. Weight lb.
SM278 (Top Entry) 250/400 Mercury G.E.S 18 14 19½ SM307 (Side Entry) 250/400 Mercury G.E.S 18 14 19½ ST.907 (Top Entry) 300/500 Tungsten G.E.S 18 14 14½ ST.908 (Side Entry) 300/500 Tungsten G.E.S 18 14 14½
Catalogue Number Lamp Watts Holder Height in. Diameter in. Weight lb. STM.279 (Top Entry) 250/400 Mercury 300/500 Tungsten G.E.S 18 14 14½ STM.309 (Side Entry) 250/400 Mercury 300/500 Tungsten G.E.S 18 14 14½
The catalogue pictures and tables are courtesy of Simon Cornwell. Simon’s full page is here: Urban Enclosed Lantern. His incredible site is here: Lighting.
So what did these look like in real life?
Davy from the Yahoo Group mentioned earlier has the answer, from wonderfully preserved equivalents he photographed at Newton Abbot.
BTH Urban Enclosed lantern closer view
From Davy’s page: “Private land now, and an electricity compound is home to four BTH Urban Enclosed lanterns. These still hold their high wattage tungsten lamps, although they are now probably defunct due to the floodlights installed below. All are in excellent condition, and so are the huge Stanton columns considering they are probably of 1950s vintage.”
Newton Abbot lamp post - mercury light
Above is another cool photo from Davy’s excellent page on Newton Abbot Streetlighting. His site is about Plymouth & South Devon Streetlighting.
Ciao, Lampy, August 2010
Photographs for Sale
If you would like to buy some lamp post photographs, including a huge number that are not (yet) on the blog, and including full-sized originals, then please read this new page: Lamp post photographs for sale.
Thanks,
Lampy
Mansfield Lampies
Let’s spend some time with some metalic oldies in the South Yorkshire town of Mansfield. The lamp posts featured date from circa the 1960′s/70′s.
Terraced street Duck neck sodium
Old lamp posts have real character. This fossil is made of a cast iron post and sports a sodium lantern. Sodium lanterns (known as SOX in the trade) glow pink on switch-on (the glow of neon and argon gases), progressing to a yellow/amber shine, as electrons in the outer electron shell of the sodium atoms jump up and down when hot. Lampy will post some pictures of sodiums that are switched on some point.
Mansfield Duck-neck sodium Lamp detail shot
Here is the creature closer up. Notice the cross bars that were used, in times long past, to support a ladder so that the bulb could be replaced. In those days the lantern would have been a tungsten lantern, containing an old fashioned tungsten light bulb. Those are now being phased out of the interior of people’s houses in favour of more energy-efficient fluorescent models.
Mercury nut lamp post
An increasingly rare lamp post with a mercury lantern. These lanterns were extremely common in the 70′s and 80′s.
Closer shot of the mercury light
Detail shot. These glow white.
Mansfireld street with mercury lights
Side street lamp posts scene in Mansfield.
Mansfield Big Lamp posts
Now for some big steal beasts. Mansfield sports, as of 2009, when these photos were taken, a plethora of Glassy Tank lamp posts! Lampy has always been a huge fan of these awesome, chunky lanterns! Originally they would have contained white-light mercury light bulbs within.
Mansfield large street lights
Here are more glassies.
Small glassy tank lantern
The lantern on this street light (above) is a smaller glassy tank.
Glassy Tank lamp posts on dual carriage way
More Glassy Tank street lighting on the Mansfield dual carriageway roads.
Mansfield dual carriageway streetlighting
Mansfield bus station lamp posts
Here you can see some great street lights at Mansfield bus station. Here is a Glassy Tank lamp post and also a Silver Hippie (technically a Thorn Alpha 3) lamp post.
Emu lamp post
Finally, here is a Mansfield side street with sodium lamp posts. Lampy is reminded of an Emu. This cast iron lamp post, which is a fossil, has lost its original goose neck shaped top, sadly, which would have been more ornate. Happily, you have already seen one at the top of this very post!
Well time has run out for this post. This is just a small selection of Lampy’s Mansfield street light photos, and indeed photos elsewhere in England. If you’re impatient to see more, then contact Lampy with a request. Indeed he is happy to sell photographs.
Keep photographing those old lampies!
Nottingham Relics
Lampy presents some shots from Lenton Lane, Nottingham, as of March 2010.
You can see an original concrete here, along with one with the top replaced.
First of two survivors in an overgrown wildnerness
There are two surviving ancient concrete columns near the railway by the Lenton Lane bridge, Nottingham. It is surreal to see these Shepherds Crook relics of the 50′s in grassy lightly wooded wilderness.
Olde Shepherds Crook closer
Below you can see the old lantern internals more clearly, probably the original. This is a huge reason why these survivors are so amazing. Lampy would love to know what the original bowl looked like. He can guess. Pointy Nut is his best guess. Can anyone inform? – Update August 2010 – See here for the answer!
Old lantern is still intact, apart from the lamp and bowl
Here is the twin sister of the first Second Olde Shepherds Crook lamp post (only two survive), who is away from the trees
Here she is again
Closer...
Overexposed to reveal detail of lantern
front view of this remarkble lamp post
The above Lamp posts are exactly the same species as the functioning Ripponden Oldies, lanterns aside!
After that concrete feast for the eyes, now for some metal more prosaic but still rare lamp posts.
Lenton Lane Nottingham metal post: survivor in a factory car park
Another...
Car park old metal column, sodium lantern lamp posts
Later, lamp fans!
Lampy