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Street furniture

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kandor
  • Start date Start date
That would be around 1937 That is when Birmingham started using mercury vapour lighting - or to give them their correct name Osira 400w MA/V lamps. They gave out a gloomy blue / green light. Some authorities used to use 2 addition 60w tungsten Lamps to provide some kind of colour rendering.
 
These bollards date from the 1950s and were removed from New Street.
 

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Fury in model village as broadband firm installs ‘eyesore’ telegraph poles [Guardian headline a few weeks ago re Bournville Village Trust]

1719911570070.jpeg. Only just come across this -

The poles were erected by broadband provider Brsk, which claims to be “rolling out the fastest full fibre broadband the UK has to offer”, and in many places is creating its own infrastructure to do so.

The infrastructure consists of old fashioned telegraph poles - over a 100 in Bournville alone. Conservation area but Brsk apparently don't need planning permission! Now being installed in Moseley. No consultation, council powerless, inappropriate siting, residents protests - all to no avail.

So much for conservation areas and planning restrainsts - clearly big business can do what it likes but woe betide you if you break the rules!
 
Vivienne14 said:
Where I live, we still have telegraph poles and poles supporting electricity cables. Don't know why.
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and we do all cabling is on poles. the onlything under ground is moles. the phone lines were on the same poles as the electric but H&S stopped it
they have to have there own poles
 
In the village I lived in when I moved from Brum all the phones and electrics were on poles, over the years most were removed and the cables laid under the footpaths.
Problem then was that because of ancient culverts getting in the way some of the mains electric was just four inches under the surface and frequently got chopped when digging occurred for any reason
We also had a mains transformer on poles in the pub carpark opposite, very interesting when it caught fire and the firemen wouldn't attempt to put it out for fear of electrocution.
All around us now Gigaclear are laying broadband fibre under the footpaths.
 
Apologies as this isn't really on topic but the electric street poles on Japan really amazes me!
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I guess it's something to do with potential earthquakes - safer above ground?
 
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Just a bit more on this!

I remember about 50 years ago {?} telephone lines in Birmingham were on poles BUT BT then put the cables underground. Must have cost a fortune. I also remember the Birmingham Cable Co. installing underground cables for fast broadband etc. Again must have cost millions for Birmingham alone. So new cables on poles must be related to profit and not II think not for any technical reasons.

I didn't know anythink about this until a few weeks ago. An awful lot of people are going to be upset when a pole apears outside their house festooned with cables. Protests already taking place where they are installing them all over the country as well as in Brum.
 
Love seeing these signposts. This one is still at the junction of College Road, Church Lane and Grove Lane Handsworth. A bit rusty, but hanging in there. The arms must be original too.

My favourites are those with the round, place name on top.

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that is amazing viv..i must have passed that many times on my travels and never noticed it

lyn
 
Attached street view of sign post at the junction of the High Street/Vicarage Road in Kings Heath. I have a phot I took over 50 years ago and it has been repainted and original black on white signs have been replaced. Preferred the original. Rather oddly "Wolverhampton" has also been added.

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Attached street view of sign post at the junction of the High Street/Vicarage Road in Kings Heath. I have a phot I took over 50 years ago and it has been repainted and original black on white signs have been replaced. Preferred the original. Rather oddly "Wolverhampton" has also been added.

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I posted this on another thread today, lots of interesting street furniture at tge busy Aston Cross junction in 1970. Was the feature with the 'arms' a former street lamp? The second photo (1952) was posted to another thread by a former member.

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Hmm strange isn't it, it looks like it might have been a lamp but then there's a more usual design of lamp nearby on the 1952 photo - maybe it was of an older redundant style?
It looks like there was a Ladies toilets in front of it but I can't imagine that had anything to do with it!
 
A Sparks said:
Hmm strange isn't it, it looks like it might have been a lamp but then there's a more usual design of lamp nearby on the 1952 photo - maybe it was of an older redundant style?
It looks like there was a Ladies toilets in front of it but I can't imagine that had anything to do with it!
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Agree, if it was a lamp it would b3 per 1952. It show to be unchanged 10 years apart.
 
Wonderful ! What a great lamp. Must be victorian and looks very solid. Perhaps as ASparks ' suggested, it being so positioned because of the underground toilets close by.
 
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