Off Hackworth Close, Dean Bank, Ferryhill, County Durham With thanks to Oliver Davison for informing me of these Survivors. Installed within Dean Bank Park (known formerly as the Miners' Recreation Ground) are a number of fluted cast iron lighting columns. While most of these are topped with faux-Victorian post-top lanterns running domestic compact fluorescent lamps, two are fitted with later swan neck brackets and Simplex Diadem lanterns, and run 70 Watt SON (high pressure sodium) lamps instead. A car park within the park area also houses some notable installations - these comprise large floodlights running high wattage (probably 2 kW) quartz metal halide lamps.
The first column supporting a Diadem is to be found in the north-western corner of the park, on a right-angled bend in the roadway.
The installations seem rather unloved, with the paint peeling heavily on both this column and the bracket.
The bowl is grubby, and slightly yellowed, though not as heavily as it would be, had an MBF (mercury vapour) lamp been used, as earlier versions of the Diadem were designed to run.
Revo-made versions of the Diadem featured prismatic refractor glass bowls instead of the polycarbonate bowls employed on later Relite and Simplex versions.
Unusually, the base sections are relatively narrow, with only small access doors required.
The second column is to be found a little further along the same lane.
This bowl is missing, revealing a heavily blackened GE (possibly) tubular lamp.
No photocell control is present on either of the lanterns, suggesting that they are switched from elsewhere.
One of the car park flood lighting columns is pictured, for completeness.
The upper glazing panel is smashed, but the lamp itself appears to be intact.
If these lamps are 2 kW, and there are four of these fittings, the car park must have been visible from space when they worked (assuming that they do not now)! The car park area was previously a tennis court, so the lighting may have been a legacy from that.
A very grubby Thorn Areaflood is also attached to this column, to provide illumination to the roadway behind. Someone really went for the 'overkill' approach with this lighting!
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