216. Hills Meadow Car Park, off George Street, Reading, Berkshire Situated within the car park are three 30 ft (9.144 m) tubular steel columns supporting GEC ZD10517 post-top lanterns. These lanterns were designed to accommodate three 250 - 400 Watt mercury vapour (MBF) lamps ('Truelite' in GEC parlance), or the same quantity of 310 - 400 Watt high pressure sodium (SON) lamps ('Solarcolour'); the 310 Watt option being an OSRAM-only lamp that ran on standard 400 Watt MBF control gear. Judging by the assortment of floodlights that are attached to all three of the columns, the post-tops may not work any longer, and may not have worked for many years.
Even when viewed from the ground, these lanterns seem rather sizeable.
The lanterns measure 1220 mm (4 ft) in diameter, and 425 mm (16 3/4) inches in height.
CU Phosco 'Spaceflood' floodlights are fitted to all three of the columns too, though they too may be disused.
The other two columns are in line with the first. Notice that the Spaceflood fitted to the foreground column is an empty shell.
The background lantern is seen in closer detail.
The Spaceflood fitted to this column was intact, although again, another floodlight existed directly below it, with newer LED floodlights being positioned lower down the column shaft.
The foreground example was the only one of the three that appeared to have slight damage to the bowl. The canopy also looked a little misaligned.
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