12CA. Stamford Brook Bus Garage, Chiswick High Road, London Borough of Hounslow Located on the road leading into the bus garage, as well as attached to part of the garage structure itself, are a number of aluminium-canopied Thorn Beta 79 lanterns, for 70 Watt SON (high pressure sodium) or 80 - 125 Watt MBF (mercury vapour) lamps. The bus garage opened in 1980, using buildings constructed in 1883/4 as the Chiswick Tram Depot, and so the Beta 79s are likely to date from when this remodelling occurred, and may remain in service in 2025 (when these pictures were taken), although some examples have floodlights installed alongside, which suggests that they have been superseded.
The first example is attached to an 8 m tubular steel column at the entrance to the depot area.
The column and bracket serve as a convenient support for a number of telecommunication cables, which appear to have connected the main office building to a smaller, standalone office that used to exist alongside the column.
The aluminium canopies resembled weathered GRP canopies (as later incarnations of the Beta 79 featured), owing to dirt gathering on them from the established trees on Chiswick High Road itself.
An elliptical lamp is visible within the grubby bowl. As the polycarbonate has not yellowed substantially, these examples are likely to run SON lamps.
Another example is attached to a relatively low wall that is located alongside the designated walkway into the original part of the depot.
Although the position for a NEMA photocell socket is moulded into the die-cast canopy, the position is unused with this example.
Another two wall-mounted examples exist on the other side of the office building, with the Grade II listed 1901 'Power House' being visible behind. This served as an electricity generating station for the London United Electrical Tramway Company until 1917, and as a substation from then until 1962, when it closed, owing to the cessation of trolleybus operations. It was later converted to residential use.
The supply cable to this Beta 79 passes immediately into the building by way of a conduit box after leaving the bracket.
The bowl was missing from the other wall-mounted example here.
Three further wall-mounted examples were attached to the old tram depot buildings.
Amazingly, the wall brackets that once supported the overhead wires for the trams, and latterly, trolleybuses, are still visible - one is seen partially above this Beta 79.
Transport history continued within the depot, with Leyland Titan double decker RTW467 (LLU 957), dating from 1950, being visible, alongside another vintage vehicle alongside. The 'W' inclusion signifies that this was a 'wide' version, at 8 ft in width, instead of the usual (for the time) 7 ft 6 inches.
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