27b - A515 High Street, Buxton

27b. A515 High Street, Buxton In something of a continuation of the installations pictured on the previous page, two further cast iron columns designed for main road use can be seen along this section of the road. Unlike the ornate examples installed in the Pavilion Garden gardens, however, these two columns have been 'modernised'; their original embellished brackets having been replaced with far more austere side entry types that nowadays support Thorn Alpha 8 150 Watt SON lanterns. Archival photographs indicate that Atlas Alpha 3 lanterns were fitted in the 1970s, and going back even earlier, to around 1906, we are able to discern how the installations would have appeared originally.

The two installations (including the lantern canopies) were painted black in the mid-2000s, in order to provide continuity to the then-newly-installed street furniture (also black) on the adjacent Market Place. Prior to this, the metalwork was painted sage green. Traces of the former finish can still be seen in places where the black has worn away.

The replacement brackets may have originally been designed to accommodate a side-entry main road fluorescent lantern.

At the time of photographing (July 2015), the bowl was missing from the second Alpha 8.

A small decorative strip existed above this installation's bracket - this was possibly intended to provide support for the outreach, although as this had been absent from the first example for many years without having a noticeably detrimental effect on the bracket, its usefulness is questionable.

The decorative bases had seen better days - notice that the inspection door's lock has failed, necessitating the use of a steel 'Tamtorque' band being strapped around the column's circumference, in order to secure the door.

Defective brackets sounded the death knell for these two columns in 2021; however, the base section of one is believed to have been acquired by a local history group for use as a feature in a local open space.