33BA. Bull Close Road, Nottingham. Situated approximately halfway along this industrial estate road is an eight metre steel column supporting a Thorn Alpha 3 lantern. When pictured in December 2020, the lantern was dayburning, revealing a very dim and green 250 Watt mercury vapour (MBF) lamp - quite a sight to behold! With the lamp being in this condition, it is likely to have been lit constantly for some time. This is the only Alpha 3 installed on the road, but is unlikely to be left over from an earlier scheme - if anything, this installation may be a replacement for another column that supported an Alpha 9 90 Watt SOX lantern; this being the commonest type of lantern along the road.
The column looks to date from the 1980s, with the lantern likely to be from around then too.
The faulty photocell is a Zodion SS4; this could be the lantern's original cell.
Although painted and numbered to Nottingham City Council's specification, I assume that this road may not be adopted by them, as this was about the only road in the whole City that was lit with non-LED light sources by 2020, and this Alpha 3 is likely to be the very last MBF lantern in the City too. Additionally, the road carries a 10 mph speed limit, which would also be unusual for a public road.
The lamp really is as dim as it appears in these photographs.
Some small cracks exist within the refractor part of the bowl.
A little further along the road, the columns become Stanton 1808 concretes, with the example below (situated alongside the vast open space that used to be the distinctive Imperial Tobacco building) supporting an ELECO GR 102 90 Watt SOX lantern.
The concrete is beginning to crack at the end of the bracket, but otherwise, the installation is in reasonable condition.
The GR 102 is the gear-in-head version of the GR 100, and uses the larger GR 150 (intended for 135 Watt SOX lamps) body, in order to accommodate the lamp and control gear.
The ballast is plainly visible towards the rear of the lantern. A small amount of discoloured water has gathered in the lowest portion of the bowl.
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