Saint Andrew's Square, New Town / Broughton, Edinburgh Located in the south-western corner of the square are two 25 ft (8 m) tubular steel former traction poles, both of which were still fitted with GEC Z9465 lanterns in 2026. While these lanterns would have run 90 Watt SOX (low pressure sodium) lamps when new, they now appear to have been rather heavily bodged internally to accommodate some sort of LED retro-fit lamp instead, though as the wiring feeding them looks rather dubious itself, some additional butchery won't hurt!
The two columns are fed with an overhead Twin & Earth-style cable. This appears to be a makeshift repair for an earlier catenary connection - there are no base compartments in the traction poles to accommodate underground electricity supply terminations.
Originally, the wiring would have entered the structures via a hole in the pole shafts, and then passed inside the bracket to terminate into the lantern. This work is likely to have been achieved by the brackets having not been installed initially, allowing the cabling to be fed through. As the brackets are probably now rusted solid to the poles, repeating this procedure with the new cable was probably not an option; hence, why it has had to be attached to the bracket's exterior instead.
The lamp fitted now appears to be a standard LED GLS design. Curiously, the lantern's original bayonet lampholder is not used, although the original SOX lamp support is (possibly) still employed to surround the new lamp.
This is the second of the two installations.
A Zodion NEMA photocell is fitted to the lantern's canopy.
The two installations can be found outside Edinburgh's Capital Building (which now serves as an Italian restaurant); further details of the building's history can be read here.
Unlike the side-entry version, the lamp in the Z9465 would face backwards, whereas the new lamp faces forwards.
The second lantern has also been converted rather crudely to take a lamp other than the type for which it was designed, although I cannot determine what lamp is now employed in this.
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