54D. Saddler Street, Bishop Auckland, County Durham With thanks to Oliver Davison for informing me of these Survivors. Installed within the bus station area are a number of 8 m sheet steel columns made by Stainton, with two of these retaining their original Thorn Gamma 4 multiple-lamp post-top lanterns. The remainder now support Abacus Orion fittings, with the two surviving Gamma 4s being confined to a small pedestrian area between Saddler and Clayton Streets. According to a plaque in this area, the bus station opened in 1984, which gives an indication as to the age of the installations. With plans to redevelop the bus station materialising in 2023, the Gamma 4s could be living on borrowed time.
These Gamma 4s appear to be the 3 ft (914 mm) diameter version, rather than the 4 ft (1219 mm) version that Thorn also produced.
Owing to the unusual method employed for gaining access to the insides of this lantern, which involves unscrewing the lower casting, and letting both it and the bowl descend, four bolts are drilled into the column shaft, in order to support the two components while work is underway.
With the lanterns having translucent bowls, the lamp types could not be determined from looking at them; however, this 1992 video of buses entering and exiting the bus station suggests that they will be high pressure sodium (SON) - or at least, were at the time.
The second of the two Gamma 4 columns is away from the road, and within the pedestrian precinct.
This example's aluminium canopy is slightly grubbier from this angle than the other Gamma 4's canopy is.
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