Over the past few years we have seen the slow demise of SOX lighting, concrete columns and the demise of Mercury too.

In its place we are getting more SON and "straight pole and bottom entry lamp" type affairs and sweeping curved columns in some areas (though still rare)and also LED stuff. Streetlighting does seem to be getting more uniform across the UK I think.

Having been to Berlin in July I saw quite a few Iridiums, a couple of Industria Arcs and I've seen Vectras in Belgium and Holland quite abit too. It seems stuff is becoming more general all over Europe now.

Does anyone else agree????

Yes, I do. Liverpool, in partiularly, was essentially its own little fiefdom, with unique lantern designs not found anywhere else pretty much standard up until around 1970.

Obviously, a lot of manufacturers will operate on a continental scale and use similar or same designs for different countries, seen as the lighting requirements don't differ much between most European countries nowadays.

As a footnote, I've always felt a lot of the SON stuff gives an American feel to UK cities, especially if it's on curved brackets. I used to always see lanterns in American movies that didn't look too much unlike the Alpha 3. Of course, like in a lot of Europe (especially the Med countries, including France), SOX was almost unheared of in the US, with mercury being the main light source until SON arrived.

Which reminds me, when did SON arrive? I've heared conflicting dates. Some have claimed it came in as long back as the seventies and I think I've heard people on here say it's from the late 80s, but all of Liverpool's Alpha 3 stock was already wholesale converted SON-T from my earliers memories (mid/late-80's). Perhaps the SON-E bulbs for mercury lanterns weren't as old. Certainly, Liverpool still replaced mercury bulbs with mercury before the early nineties.

I'm not an expert on lighting terminology so be gentle with me. Many years before I encountered the terminology SOX or SON, I heard the terminology low or high pressure sodium.

I'm assuming that

SON = high-pressure sodium = pinkish-white light

SOX = low-pressure sodium = orangey-yellow, almost monochromatic light
(actually I think it's mainly two nearby spectral lines).


There was a long interval from the time when SON first appeared to the time when it began to be fairly commonplace, and a further long interval before it became almost universal on new installations.

As far as I can recal, SON first appeared in the 1970s (maybe the mid-70s?), but SOX continued to be the usual type of lighting on new trunk road installations.

SON began to be fairly commonplace in the early-to-mid 80s (e.g. used on the A55 around Bangor/Llanfairpwll) but there were still a lot of new SOX installations even then.

And SON became universal on new trunk road installations around 1999.

When SON first appeared, I think I read something about high-pressure sodium being more efficient than low-pressure and giving better colour rendering, but being dependent on new types of glass to resist attack from the sodium.

Yes, SON is high pressure and SOX is low pressure.

Your time frames make sense to me. I must say though, SOX is still quite a bit more efficient than SON. In fact, I think it's still the most efficient streetlight source out there, with only compact flourescent & LED competing. Indeed, this is why SOX became so popular during the energy crisis in the 1970s; replacing mercury & incandescent in the residential streets. SON's obvious advantage over SOX is it's more whiter light and I think modern implementation standards insist on whiter light as standard application these days. That said, metal halide lamps are more of a proper white and no less efficient, so whilst SOX still has some advantages, I don't see the point of SON anymore.

Well SON lamps are still popular since they are quite inexpensive compared to SOX, and there is plenty of stock of them for motorways and such. Metal Halide and LED are still too expensive and SOX is dying out.

Oddly enough, in the 60s and 70s column styles were distinctly 'European' with plenty of curved brackets. They went out of favour in the mid 80s and the bland stuff came in.

There's a comeback for 'euro' type lighting columns now, and I like it.

I find the straight pole, bottom entry lighting non-offensive, better than the utilitarian lighing poles of the 1980 and 90's but it is still bland all the same. My favourite type is the curved bracket of the sort seen in Sheffield, the Milton Keynes Boulevards and even the older ones in Brighton.

I even kind of liked the 1970's style of angled brackets, especially those with a large reach - almost Giraffe looking. The M25/M4 junction seem to have had them installed after they generally fell out of fashion but there they do give the road a feel of its own.

Of course what spoils more recent installations are the randoms distances that columns are placed from the kerbline of the road - some at the back of the pavement, some at the front on the kerbline. On a straight street it doesn't look attractive at all because the symmetry and regimentation is lost. This is also happening on motorways where the old columns in the central reserve are being replaced with columns at the edge of the shoulder - at different distances and even with different brackets - it looks horrible as having old columns with mix and match lighting.

As I understand it new installations should always go to the back of the pavement as it causes less of an obstruction for pedestrians, and the blind and partially sighted are less likely to walk into them.

Plus it means less chance of cars crashing into them!

In answer to the OP's question, I think lighting is becoming more standardised across the continent rather than our lighting becoming like theirs. I was surprised when I went on holiday to Tenerife in 2006 to find a lot of the lighting was Vectras mounted post-top - exactly the same as we have in my area (well, different column type but essentially the same design). However the older lighting in the Canaries is more traditional European style - MBF Cobraheads on angular brackets. I've never seen Cobraheads in the UK (unless you count the Phosco P678 but I don't because it's not the traditional style Cobrahead).

I heard there were WRTL Vectras in Tenerife around 2006, are they still there now? I can't find any on GSV around Tenerife, which areas were they seen in?

Personally I don't think of any street lantern or column any differently; they all have their merits and the lighting company should be respected for that. In 40-50 years time we might be mourning the loss of the last Urbis Sapphire on a motorway. It is still a form of art no matter what. What is important is maintaining the tech as it is only our loss for not doing so.

There used to be some in Arona but according to GSV they've been replaced by Holophane QSMs and other lanterns. That part of Tenerife has extremely modern lighting, even the back streets!

Incidentally, what is the reason for not using curved lighting in the UK? Is it simply a "more difficult to change the bulb" issue? Whenever I've driven in France I've always been impressed by how much better having lighting directly over the traffic lanes makes road lighting - much better than in the UK, where often the edge of the road is overlit, with the centre in semi-darkness.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=carrefo ... 82.26,,0,0

It's all to do with cost. Straight columns with post-top lanterns are cheaper. The excuse given is that lanterns these days have such good optics that they don't need to be mounted on a bracket to throw light over the road. However, if incorrectly specified, or if the road is wide, or if there are trees etc in the vicinity of the lantern then they can become ineffective.

Incidentally the installations in your link look amazing!

This is a Holophane QSM ?

I'm surprised there's no post-top installs or sleeved ones in Spain, though, and I haven't seen any post-top Vectras in Holland on GSV either... nor a WRTL 2600 in post-top form either, but plenty of 2000s - sort of like Skelmersdale is!

When I went to holland a few months back I don't recall seeing much post top lanterns. Saw plenty of catenery lighting on the motorways, though. So nice to see catenery lighting used so extensively. I saw some in Germany as well on the A1 north of Cologne but it looked like they were taking it down.

In regards to our lighting looking more continental in some places I would say yes but in others it's just looking more bland. Personally I prefer the way countries like Holland are street lit. I especially liked Germany that was still using fluecent lighting in the cities/towns. All I can say is that I'm glad we don't use the same lighting as Belgium!

Depends where you go in the Netherlands I think. Rotterdam seem to use post top quite extensively; virtually every side street is lit with post top installations, along with a great many of the main roads. The situation is similar in a lot of neighbouring gemeenten as well. Den Haag on the other hand seems to have far fewer post top installations.

On Belgium, when I was in Antwerpen they seemed to use a lot of building mounted lights in more densely built up areas, a lot of curved columns in more spread out locations. There were a fair few concrete columns with post top lanterns in some of the port areas too. It's a bit of a mish mash, interesting though. The stuff they use in the central reservations of motorways is quite distinctive too but harder to describe.

What is this lantern - haven't seen any in the UK!

I just call them "upper case 'T's" or "double upper case 'T's" They certainly were interesting but, after 100km I got really bored of them. Then again I was on the E40 between Liege and Brussels so I was getting bored anyway.

I've seen a few of them around and have been down that street a few times. Unfortunately though, I am no expert on the names of lanterns!