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Street furniture

K

Kandor

Guest
When I was a boy every streetlamp I ever saw had around its base...an old bicycle tyre.
Whereas kids these days just see a Lampost, people of my age saw a swing..people of my age saw a wicket or a goalpost..
In our day our lamposts held one end of a skipping rope or as silly as it sounds it was half an hiding place for hide and seek...
I used to love watching illuminated snow as it slid past its circle of warm glowing light.
It was an oasis of welcome that lit up our way in a simpler and more innocent time.
I dont remember the old gas ones that had to be lit by a man with a long pole but I do know this, when we switched to Sodium lights it may have lit our streets up more...But I wasn't able to see so clear..
I guess we call it progress....oh God....I'm tired.
 
One of the things I remember about the old street lights is that unlike today's which are controlled by photo-electric switches, they were on timers. This meant that in the event of a mid-day smog, they didn't come on and you couldnt see a hand in front of your face. Also, if memory serves, they were painted cream and navy blue, like the busses. Am I right?
 
Am I right in believing, in the era of timers between lamp-lighters and photocells, the street lights sometimes switched off before it was light in the morning? I'm pretty sure I can remember being left in the dark on my way home from town some mornings. Or is it my ageing memory flickering and dimming, not the lights? :(
 
Youre right Oisin about the street lights going off at different times. I always thought
that it was because of the daylight saving time effect when the clocks went forward or backwards and the system hadn't been adjusted.
 
Clockwork timers v Photocells. the old clock work timer had to be reset for British summer time & again in the winter, not always a council priority !

Even now some photocells are set to low and do not come on until total darkness falls,this can be very dangerous for the public on dull rainy days.
 
Oh, so I've still got a couple of grey cells left then. ??? Thank you jennyann and aston; you've made me feel a lot better about myself. O0

Robert, I'm ignoring you! :p :mad:
 
Nicked this from the Bordesley Green thread.

Can anyone explain the set up of the Belisha Beacons to me ? I've been driving since the late 60s (and would have been crossing that road from the late 50s ) bit cant understand why both belishas are on the same side of the road.
 
Strange, never seen that arrangement before. That car driver is pushing his luck. I wonder if the old lady made it to the other side ? To many imponderables for this time of the morning.
Just a thought.Could the furthest beacon be for a crossing on the " T " junction off to the left ? In which case it would be two crossings not one.
A google threw up a Hansard report from November,1950 mentioning the introduction of the Pedestrian Crossing Regulations,1950 and how it was thought there were to many crossings.The report also spoke about tests carried out on black and white stripes on crossings and how they would be mandatory under the new regulations.
I think what we may have is a new law introduced in 1950 to standardise crossings throughout the country. Local Highway Authorities may perhaps have interpeted the original regulations in lots of different ways. This may be the case in your photo where only one beacon marks the crossing points. Thats the best I can come up with.
 
I think there is a third beacon about level with the car, I think its two seperate crossings
 
mike-g said:
I think there is a third beacon about level with the car, I think its two seperate crossings
Click to expand...
Me too. I think the second beacon's 'partner' is on the other side of the side street. Although why hasn't the first beacon got a 'partner' on the right hand side of the main road?
Polly
 
I didn't even realise that there were no longer any Belisha beacons until I mentioned this post to a friend last evening...when did they cease to exist?
 
pollypops said:
Me too. I think the second beacon's 'partner' is on the other side of the side street. Although why hasn't the first beacon got a 'partner' on the right hand side of the main road?
Polly
Click to expand...

Looking at the photo it appears that there are white painted hoops on the lamppost( or tram post) on the right hand side i wonder if this was cheap way of showing a Bellisha Beacon. Dek
 
dek carr said:
Looking at the photo it appears that there are white painted hoops on the lamppost( or tram post) on the right hand side i wonder if this was cheap way of showing a Bellisha Beacon. Dek
Click to expand...

So there is - Well spotted! Could this be the answer to the mystery of the Bellisha Beacons?
Polly
 
The white hoops are visible on three at least tram poles in that picture, but they are just wartime blackout markers.
The original pedestrian crossings were indicated by the orange lights (belisha beacons, named after Leslie Hore-Belisha ) and marked by shiny metal studs in the road surface - and some are visible on the right hand side of the road. Why the light on the right is missing I don't know - had it been knocked down perhaps?
 
Could it be that being this is a junction and on a major road be controlled by a police constable at rush hour only

Experiments carried out during the past two years by the Road Research Laboratory have shown that black and white stripes not only make crossings more conspicuous, but have a good effect on drivers' behaviour and on the use of the crossings by pedestrians. I propose, therefore, that all uncontrolled crossings, on which pedestrians will continue to have precedence over vehicular traffic, 794 should be marked with black and white stripes. Crossings which are controlled by police officers intermittently or during certain hours of the day would also be striped, but pedestrians would not have precedence on such crossings when traffic there was being controlled by police.
 
Ever so slightly off topic, but who remembers Panda Crossings ?

I rememeber them being publicised on TV in the 60s, but never saw one, and cant remember what they were about, except that they had triangles of black/white instead of stripes .
 
There's loads about still . There's one outside my office building too - outside the crown Pub junction of Hill St and Station Street in the City centre.

View attachment 47899 Another courtesy of Google Street View. Enjoy your pint JohnO .;)
 
The picture is of two normal pedestrian crossings, one is in the side road at the mouth of the junction and one is on the main road.
 
There are still quite a few of these about.I think i know what they were for but what were they called?
Moss.
Original photo lost, but replaced with another to show what sort of item the poster was referring to

outside proof house.jpg
 
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Weren't they to stop horse drawn carts to mount the kerb at corners, a lot were made from old cannons I think captured in the Napoleonic wars.
Some modern ones are made in the shape of these cannons, unless I am wrong.
Cheers
Dave
 
Yeah a bollard...thats what I would have thought too. You can see them in some of the old photo's or pictures at corners to prevent the horse and carts from cutting the corners and injuring pedestrians. At least that is what I think they were for. A serious effort seems to have been made to save that particular one. I wonder why. Is it of historical importance. Does it still serve a purpose. Sometimes they were used to bar vehicular access to a lane also.
 
daverock said:
Weren't they to stop horse drawn carts to mount the kerb at corners, a lot were made from old cannons I think captured in the Napoleonic wars.
Some modern ones are made in the shape of these cannons, unless I am wrong.
Cheers
Dave
Click to expand...


Yep, we used to have several, in Newcastle, complete with cannon-ball, of a slightly larger calibre, wedged in the top.
 
Well you learn something every day. I wonder how many tourists walk past these old cannons and never realise that they are passing a piece of significant history.
 
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