12L. Burgess Park, London Borough of Southwark Thanks to Alex Monk for informing me of these Survivors. Attached to the southern side of the 'Bridge to Nowhere' landmark (itself, a Survivor from when the Grand Surrey Canal passed beneath it en route to the nearby Addington Wharf terminus at Camberwell Road) are two short cast iron stands mounted to the plinths, dating from the bridge's opening in 1906, and topped with newer swan neck brackets supporting GEC Z9456s, from the early 1950s - the forerunner to the later Z9480 series of lanterns that superseded the Z9456 around a decade later. With this portion of the canal having closed in the early 1970s, and many of the surrounding factories and houses being cleared, the bridge fell into disuse, and today, it cannot be accessed at all. An archival photograph taken from the bridge in 1979 shows another Z9456 on a cast iron column; no trace of this installation exists today.
The two installations face each other at the top of the steps; evidence exists that the equivalent plinths on the northern side of the bridge may have had similar stands installed, but both of these plinths are bare now.
With the bridge having been derelict for so long, sadly, both lanterns are vandalised - indeed, the right-hand example is an empty shell.
Visible emerging from the brickwork of both plinths are the remains of gas pipes (an indication of the original light source of the plinth lanterns), re-purposed later for housing the cabling to supply the electric lighting. A close-up of the left-hand example is seen below.
The plinth columns are relatively short, with the swan necks adding much of the height to the installations.
Out of the two lanterns, this one is more intact - its gear tray / reflector and lampholder (complete with asbestos-sheathed wiring) remain extant, although the bowl and lamp support are missing.
Although the reflector is rusted heavily, its original gloss white painted finish remains, for the most part.
The reflector forms a v-shape above where the lamp would be situated.
The gear tray on the other example is hanging open.
No lamp control gear remains installed on the inside of the lantern, even though a leak transformer and capacitor for a 60 Watt low pressure sodium SO/H lamp (itself, the forerunner to a 35 Watt SOX lamp) would have existed originally; there being nowhere else on the bridge structure for the gear to be housed.
Aside from a short length of supply cable emerging through the top of the lantern, nothing else remains within it. The bowl clips and hinges on the Z9456 are common to the contemporary Z9450 (for 140 Watt SO/H (90 Watt SOX) lamps); the clip design being altered to a twist of stiff wire located on the underside of the canopy on the Z9480 and Z9454.
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