170BA. Hospital Close, Evington, Leicester With thanks to Dwight for informing me of these Survivors. Installed on one of the access roads to the eponymous Leicester General Hospital are a number of columns supporting lanterns that, by 2024, were very much in ever-dwindling numbers across the UK, with the most notable of these being several ELECO GR 501s, three GEC Z8896s and two GEC Z5670s. The road has a slightly eerie post-apocalyptic feel to it, with all of the houses along it (used for accommodating hospital staff) now lying boarded up and abandoned, after being vacated in 2019, following the local NHS Trust deciding that it could not afford to maintain them any longer.
The Z8896s are situated at the end of the road that is closest to the operational hospital. These are attached to 5 m tubular steel columns made by Fabrikat.
All are fitted with NEMA photocell sockets, with the switch here being a Zodion SS4.
The inspection door had been removed from the second column, and discarded on the grass verge adjacent.
The brackets reduce to 34 mm in diameter just as they enter the lantern.
A BILL fused cut-out is located at the bottom of the backboard, with an in-line fuse carrier being above it, for local fusing. A Thorn G5333.4 ballast and 8 µF capacitor are the two control gear components that run the 80 Watt MBF (mercury vapour) lamp.
The capacitor carries the wonderfully-symmetrical manufacturing date code of 8118, suggesting that it was made during week 18 of 1981 (the 27th April - 3rd May). As the electricity services for the surrounding properties were also installed in this year, the age of these installations can be appreciated.
The third column to accommodate a Z8896 featured a door that must have originated on a different column with a shorter base compartment than this one had, judging by the gap below it.
The brackets are rather angular in appearance.
The two Z5670s are fitted to base-hinged Abacus columns in a communal parking area located behind the Z8896 columns.
These lanterns also have NEMA sockets positioned.
Curiously, the second Abacus column is of a slightly older design than the first one is.
As with the Z8896s, the polycarbonate bowls on these lanterns have discoloured from UV degradation over the years. This prevents the lamp types within them from being identified positively.
A short access road leading off the main Hospital Close was home to a further column supporting a Z8896.
The photocell here is a Royce Thompson type of some sort.
The column's door was missing here too, revealing the same control setup as with the earlier column.
Further up the cul-de-sac was another Abacus column; this one supported a GR 501.
Short, stubby brackets are employed on all the columns that support GR 501s.
This column was situated on a footpath between the houses.
This too had a polycarbonate bowl fitted.
A little further along the footpath was this example, which had lost its bowl.
The missing bowl allowed the (failed) 35 Watt SOX lamp to be seen. I was surprised that it remained intact.
This column emerged from the overgrown grass and shrubs in another communal parking area.
Fortunately, this example's bowl remained intact.
This GR 501 was on a footpath leading to the hospital.
Two lengths of insulation tape secure this lantern's bowl - I suspect that being near to tree branches may have caused the bowl to detach in blustery weather.
This example was situated next to a parking area, and the only section of the road where the houses remained occupied.
This example's bowl was also missing; again, a 35 Watt SOX lamp was fitted.
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