Derby's Street Lighting PFI Contract

Brook Walk, City Centre

The equipment being removed consisted of the following items in 1997.

Seq. No. Lamp Number Location Lamp Type Watt Isolation Point
1 101488 F/P 1 FROM FORD ST SONI 70  
2 101489 F/PATH 2ND FROM FORD ST SONI 70 Y
3 101490 F/PATH 3RD FROM FORD ST SONI 70  
4 101491 F/PATH 4TH FROM FORD ST SONI 70  
5 101492 F/PATH 5TH FROM FORD ST SONI 70  
6 101493 F/PATH 6TH FROM FORD ST SONI 70  
7 101494 F/P 7 FROM FORD ST SONI 70  
8 101495 F/P 8 FROM FORD ST SONI 70 Y
9 101496 F/P 9 FROM FORD ST SONE 70  
10 101497 F/P 10 FM FORD ST SONE 70  
11 101498 F/P 11 FM FORD ST SONE 70  
12 101499 F/P 12 FM FORD ST SONE 70  

The following photographs were taken on Sunday, 6th November 2011.

All of the outgoing lanterns consisted of CU Phosco P111 lanterns; all running a single 70 Watt SON-E lamp. The lanterns were mostly installed on vintage cast iron columns made by Revo and Bleeco. Earlier photographs of the same lanterns can be seen here.

The first installation from Ford Street supported the only P111 to be fitted with a glass refractor ring; the rest were all fitted with plastic refractor rings. Notice that the decorative finial (used to secure the lantern's canopy to the lantern) is missing; some of the other lanterns along here were similarly missing these components.

The replacement installations comprise Metcraft 'Victoria' post-top lanterns attached to Abacus base-hinged columns (and not Mallatite, as you may expect). The columns are fitted with embellishment kits to add to the 'heritage' theme of the new installations.

The ability to lower these columns for maintenance is an improvement on the existing installations - the narrow width of the footpath prevents access for most maintenance vehicles.

 

This P111 had a crack in its bowl, which had allowed a small spider to set up home inside the lantern (visible to the left of the lamp). I can only hope that it was forewarned that its house was about to be removed!

The outgoing column here was in a very sorry-looking condition; a large portion of the paint had worn away from the base.

 

The outgoing columns were of varying heights; their replacements are all six metres in height.

Not all of the new columns were installed alongside an outgoing equivalent; some were spaced further apart.

The following P111 was in a rather poor condition - its refractor ring was broken, and the lower portion of the bowl had been taped together.

Comparison of new and old equipment; notice that the outgoing column's ladder bars appear slightly out of scale with the rest of the column here.

 

A quick glance at base level reveals that this column is actually a modern steel replica; made by D.W. Windsor. This was the only "new" column out of all of the outgoing columns.

 

Compare the style of the replica column to that of a genuinely old cast iron column - the patterning is very similar. Sadly, the original inspection door was missing from this column, and a door from a Stanton 7 concrete column had been cut down to size and then banded into place as a makeshift replacement.

 

When I previously photographed the lighting along this footpath in January 2004, this column was missing its lantern - at the time, the column had only just been reinstalled following work to prevent this part of the footpath from collapsing into Markeaton Brook (which, in case you haven't realised, is from where the footpath's name originates!). Fast-forward nearly eight years, and the lantern was now back in positon; albeit, missing its finial too!

The narrow reflectors in the new lanterns look lost in such a large expanse of unused space. Incidentally, the new lanterns all run a 45 Watt CPO-TW lamp.

 

The next outgoing installation featured a P111 with a severe identity crisis - a bowl from a Thorn Gamma 6 had been fitted in place of the original clear bowl!

I personally dislike the use of heritage lighting for the new installations along the footpath - although the Markeaton Brook is a designated Conservation Area, I think a scheme using modern columns and LED lanterns would have 'worked' well; thanks to the abundance of modern apartment buildings adjacent the footpath.

 

A couple of very short Revo Hull columns then followed; I was unable to photograph the first installation due to the presence of overhanging tree branches. I was more successful with the second example, however. Needless to say, the low mounting height ensured that the finial was also missing from this lantern!

These ladder bars will never be used in anger!

 

The final column on the footpath was another Hull, though this example was marginally taller than the other two examples had been.

Detail of the column base.

 

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