12EA. Off High Worple, Rayners Lane, London Borough of Harrow Situated within the car park for the adjacent Rayners Lane Underground station are four 25 ft (8 m) tubular steel columns that still support their original 1960s' Benjamin "Duoflux" shovel-shaped floodlights. These columns would have been installed when the car park was constructed on land vacated by a coal yard, which had rails that ran onto the Underground network, and allowed coal trains to access South Harrow Gas Works - the next station south when travelling on the Piccadilly line.

The first of the installations is located at the entrance / exit to the car park, where two Duoflux fittings are installed. The second is visible in the background, above the grey temporary building.

Remarkably, the fittings are in good condition, with minimal rusting present to their enamelled steel reflectors. The curved polished aluminium reflectors behind the lamps are still present too, while the lamps themselves are high-wattage GLS (incandescent tungsten filament) types.

The columns are fed on overhead supplies. As this wiring all appears to remain intact, the aged floodlights could still be in operable condition.

Rather rudimentary ladder supports are attached to each column to allow for maintenance.

The third column is a little further along the car park, with Charles Holden's art deco station building, constructed in the late 1930s, being visible to the right. The grassed area behind the column was a siding, but had been out of use for many years, and saw its rails removed completely in 2017. The fourth column (not seen here) is also topped with two Duofluxes, in order to illuminate the far section of the car park.

Also of note are the platform lights - in many of the above-ground Holden stations of the 1930s, concrete was used extensively for the platform structures, including the lighting columns.

Although the lanterns are likely to be modern replicas (as they run high pressure sodium (SON) lamps), they are a close facsimile of the original hemispherical lanterns that were fitted to these columns, as seen here.

< Previous | Next >

BACK TO SURVIVORS IN GREATER LONDON

BACK TO SURVIVORS

CLICK HERE TO MAKE A MONETARY DONATION