Lighting here & there - UK Streetscenes (2000/2001)

UK Streetscenes (2000/2001)

41 pics

Update Oct 2017: These pics were taken in 2000/2001- the new HPS pictured lasted until 2014 when all was swept away by LED.

Most of these pics were taken over the past 18 months- there's a short description of with each one. Thanks to all, especially Jon Salmon, who helped with identifications. Manchester Road, Tyldesley, Manchester There's a big changeout of the 'A' roads round here to HPS...first the new columns are put in place, then the wiring is changed over, and finally the old post and luminaire removed. In this case a Philips LPS- for- Philips HPS swap.

Manchester Road, Leigh, Lancs A different Manchester Road, this (A572)...again the HPS changeout in progress, in this case replacing GEC luminaires on metal columns.

Manchester Road, Leigh, Lancs A little further up the road, here's an example of the column position being changed to a less vulnerable location further away from the road...of course the optics of the new Philips HPS are much better, so the luminaire doesn't have to be directly over the roadway, as does the LPS MA90.

as of 2014
Mort Lane, Astley, Lancs There is a page elsewhere on this site of this road 'pre- changeover'...as you can see it's now all Philips SGS203 luminaires...the one of choice for the local council for 'A' roads.

as of 2001
Hough Lane, Astley, Lancs More mid- changeover scenes- in this case the old fittings are Thorn Alpha Nine on GEC concrete posts.

as of mid 2000s
Mather Lane, Leigh, Lancs An old 'deeper bowl' Thorn Alpha Nine 90W SOX luminaire on the stretch of road leading up to the canal bridge.

as of mid 2000s
Mather Lane, Leigh, Lancs On the other side of the canal bridge, another short stretch of Thorn Alpha Nines...this time 'deepest bowl' ones- you can see the ballast above the lamp in the one closest to the camera. Complete stretches of LPS are becoming increasingly difficult to find round here.

as of 2014
Longcroft, Astley, Manchester A solitary Thorn Gamma Six (35W SOX) lit at dusk.

as of 2012
Quarry Pond Road, Little Hulton, Manchester. 70W HPS luminaires (possibly Industria) on CU galvanised posts.

as of Oct 2014 (fixtures only)
A580, Irlams o'the Height, Manchester GEC high mast HPS light this stretch of the dual carriageway as it nears Manchester

as of May 2011
The Crescent, Salford. Ubiquitous Philips SOX luminaires light this stretch of road near Salford University.

as of mid 2000s

Update Oct 2017: This LPS lasted until the mid/late 2000s, as of now it's still HPS but for how much longer, who knows.

Update Jul 2024: There were streetscaping works going on for much of the mid 2010s, the HPS (Philips Iridium) were replaced in about 2019 with Philips Luma LED fixtures.

Quay St, Manchester. Quite a few parts of the city centre are still totally LPS, like here, near the Opera House, with both Thorn Alpha Four, and Eleco GR150 luminaires.

as of Nov 2020

Update Jul 2024: These Urbis fixtures are still there, but some time after 2019 they were retrofitted with LED modules, to replace the original HPS lamps. GSV shows no sign of the uplighters, looks like they were removed.

Market St/St Anne's Square, Manchester. This redeveloped area is lit with both Urbis Cabrio HPS and MH, in this case there are MH uplighters in the pavement. Not good for dark skies. The glass building is the 'No.1 Deansgate' complex.

as of mid 2000s

Update Jul 2024: Late 2000s and these were replaced with flat glass Philips Iridium HPS, then between 2014 and 2015 the Iriduims were replaced with Philips Luma LED.

A580 (East Lancs Road), Astley, Manchester. Until about 10 years ago, totally unlit. One of the few dark stretches of this Manchester- Liverpool road that remained. Now, semi cut-off Philips SGS 203s provide good illumination.

as of mid 2000s
Warrington Road, Leigh. A solitary HPS Philips MA30 (thanks Ian for the ID), the only one of its type anywhere around here. The only others I know of are on the A580 in Salford, a run of about 5 or 6 each side of the road.

Warrington Road, Leigh A closeup of this luminaire- you can just about see that it has a tubular clear HPS lamp. I'm told it wasn't designed for this light source- it would have been MBF originally- judging by the amount of glare the thing gives when lit, I suspect this is true.

as of Jun 2015

Update Oct 2017: As of late 2016, this bridge and part of the building it was attached to on the west side of Oxford Road (the part that contained the 2nd floor shopping centre) have been demolished.

Oxford Road, Manchester Not strictly a street scene but this HPS tunnel luminaire (don't know the manufacturer) is underneath a bridge owned by the University. It used to have 1 HPS and 1 LPS lamp fitted...the LPS was always lit but I never saw the HPS lit. Now it's fitted with 2 HPS lamps, end to end, and you can see the gear through the glass front. I can't help thinking this isn't a correct implementation of this particular fitting.

as of mid 2000s
Deansgate, Manchester (See following pic. for details) A closeup of these ex- railway floods. One still has a lamp, both have lost their cover glasses, and you can see the ballasts in the gear box in the centre which is open.

Update Oct 2017: This site is now the location of the Beetham Tower, the tallest building in the City centre.

Deansgate, Manchester The remains of part of an old railway bridge, left standing because there's a car dealership underneath the arch, with a long- redundant pair of remote ballasted mercury floods, and another, newer fitting pointing the other way, illuminating a track long since ripped up. See previous picture for close up.

as of Jul 2008, 2' stump still showing at that point
Trafford St., Manchester. No this car wasn't responsible, despite appearances. This sad looking AC Ford 35W SOX still works, however.

Portland St./Chorlton St., Manchester What turned out to be a temporary mesaure for a few months- ordinary HPS area floods being used for streetlighting. They have since been replaced with 'proper' columns & luminaires.

Portland St., Manchester Opposite the Brutalist style Piccadilly Hotel, rather odd bedfellows. The Victorian style post top is perhaps DW Windsor or Metacraft, and the roadway light is Urbis Cabrio. Both are HPS.

Portland St., Manchester Another view of a temporary arrangement- area floods with overhead wiring- since removed.

as of mid 2000s, for roadway fixtures, then again for LED by May 2014
Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester. This area has come in for a lot of criticism since it was redeveloped a couple of years ago, but the lighting is good. Most of the area is lit with these 8- luminaire high masts, all metal halide. The effect at night is very pleasing, a good contrast from the surrounding HPS streets. You can see the limitations of current MH lamps, though. One out, the rest all different colours.

Portland St, Manchester. A closeup of the temporary area flood lighting this stretch of road, with the old globe luminaire on the building behind. I think that is a Schreder Saturne. There used to be quite a lot of them fixed to buildings in the city centre- never on columns, though.

as of Jun 2019
Liverpool, Mersyside. Near the Pier Head, twin lamp HPS luminaires. Phozagora has these as GEC "Liverpool" but I've not been able to confirm if these were a Liverpool special.

as of Jul 2012

Update Oct 2017: Amazingly there are still a few concrete columns round here, all the Alpha Threes have gone AFAIK.

Wallasey Rd., Wallasey, Wirral. Thorn Alpha Threes (with gear) on CU concrete columns. They are HPS and there's still a surprising amount of them round here.

Wallasey Rd., Wallasey, Wirral This Alpha Three has lost its bowl (a common occurrence with these luminaires) and is a dayburner as well.

as of Jul 2012 (fixtures)

Update Oct 2017: The slimmer concrete poles have gone, but some of the more ornate ones (like the one on the left of the pic) are still there, sporting new LED fixtures.

Wallasey Rd., Wallasey, Wirral. I can count five different column types here. Round here concrete columns are still just in the majority.

Wallasey, Wirral. Some more ornate Stanton & Stavley columns with Philips LPS and GEC HPS luminaires. I'm told the columns date from the 1950s.

Wallasey, Wirral. A concrete bracket by Stanton & Stavley with dayburning Philips LPS luminaire.

Wallasey, Wirral. There's a big replacement programme going on round here, with 'before' and 'after' in this pic. 35W LPS by Thorn in the foreground is being changed out to what looks like CU Phosco P567 fitted with metal halide lamps. The side streets which have been finished look great at night.

as of 2012

Update Oct 2017: This view, from 2000/2001, is no longer visible due to the big redevelopment of the whole area. The Elecos are also long gone. One (the one the left) survived until 2012, albeit without its bowl.

Victoria Bridge St., Manchester. An unusual sight in this part of the world- Eleco SR304s I think fitted with SON lamps on this short stretch of road just on the edge of the area redeveloped since the 1996 Manchester bombing.

as of Jul 2024
An example of a wall mount installation once common in Manchester city centre. A Thorn Beta Five is now on the short arm which once probably sported a GEC or BTH remote ballast mercury fixture The ballast box of which is still there, albeit only acting as a feed point nowadays as the new luminaire is an integral ballast model.

as of late 2000s
Booth St. East, Manchester. On the left you can see a dayburning WRTL MRL6- it's been like that for so long the SON lamp has started to cycle and had just restruck when I took the photo, hence it looking a nice mercury greenish colour.

as of late 2016

Update Oct 2017: This installation survived until the end of 2016, however I think it's all LED now. The promise of videos never materialised as the quality was never good enough to post.

Warrington Road, Culcheth. I've been doing some driving videos, at dusk to investigate if this is a good way of recording streetlight installations. Unfortunately I've not enough webspace at the moment to post them. Here's a grab from one, showing a Philips LPS warming up, and possibly an Industria 2000 (thanks Sander for the ID) mercury post top.

as of Oct 2017

Update Oct 2017: This luminaire and pole are gone as far as I can see, I think it was a Thorn Beta Three. Jon Salmon's site has gone, and doesn't appear to have resurfaced.

B5207, Culcheth. Another video grab, of note because it's an unknown. It's the same luminaire as the 7th one down on the 'unknowns' page on Jon Salmon's site "lightingtelephoto". It's a 35W SOX and there are two of them of concrete columns on this stretch of road. I'll try and get a better closeup soon.

Chicago, Il, USA. Shoebox MH parking lot lights somewhere round the South Loop area.

as of mid 2014

Update Oct 2017: These were taken in 2000, the HPS change happened then around 2014 it was changed to LED.

A580, Irlams o'the Height, Manchester Mixtures of GEC and Philips LPS was the usual sight on main roads round here, and is still quite common, but diminishing all the time as the changeout to HPS continues.

as of May 2011

Update Oct 2017: This bit of The Crescent has been extensively redeveloped since the pic was taken in 2000, with a severe road diet scheme. The lighting is all LED now.

The Crescent, Salford Salford University is to the left, and lighting this stretch of road are the Philips MA30's mentioned earlier in this sequence of pics. Again, these are retrofit HPS ones.

as of 2001

Update Oct 2017: "As we speak" (below) was 16 years ago! All this part of the world went HPS to LED around 2014.

Manchester Road, Mosley Common, Lancs. GEC LPS luminaires which are being changed out as we speak.

Lighting Here and There

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UK Streetscenes (2000/2001)

3.1 (14/10/24)