174CA. Off Wellhead Lane, Perry Barr, Birmingham With thanks to Dwight for informing me of this Survivor. Attached to the side of the Tufnol factory is a GEC 'Clearmain' Z8270/8370/8470 lantern for between two and four 5 ft (1500 mm) 80 Watt MCF/U (linear fluorescent) lamps - the exact product code relating to the quantity of lamps employed. When photographed in January 2025, such lanterns were as good as extinct across the UK road network, with privately-owned installations, such as this, being the only realistic way of spotting surviving examples, and even these are incredibly rare. Indeed, only this single lantern was visible - no others seemed to exist, even on historical Google Street View imagery, when the site was larger, and featured more buildings.

The building to which the lantern is attached looks to be a 1930s' construction, when the lantern itself would date from the 1950s - 60s. A now-demolished building opposite the lantern looked to date from this era, however, and so the light may have been installed as part of that extension.

Although a symmetrical bowl was the standard option, GEC offered a tapered bowl too, which is what this example uses.

With this additional building having been pulled down, this portion of the site is now given over to a self-storage unit; the low height of the shipping containers allowing an uninterrupted view of the lantern from Aston Lane.

A length of Mineral-Insulated cable terminates into a through conduit box, after which, a short piece of flexible cable connects to the lantern.

The GEC logo is positioned at the front of the lantern - I believe that this plugs a potential secondary entry point to the lantern.

The bowl is Perspex, though unusually, much of it was made translucent during manufacturer - only the sides would have been transparent originally; these are now translucent too through UV degradation.

Two older-looking post-top lanterns are positioned on the two gate posts leading into the factory complex. Two identical lanterns exist on the other side of the road, by the entrance to the Perry Barr bus depot - these were retained when the depot was constructed, but were moved from their original location, which saw them fitted to gate posts positioned identically to these. Historical mapping indicates that both sites were occupied by an Electrical Switchgear Works in the past.

I did email Tufnol after taking these pictures to ask about the lantern, <sarcasm> and their "Customer Services" email address couldn't have been more obliging; they definitely did not delete my message without having the courtesy to read it (at the very least), let alone send a reply...of course, the read receipts may tell a different story, but who ever trusts them! </sarcasm>

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