Is there any Mercury lighting left???

[sotonsteve]

Whilst a lot of lanterns in Bournemouth look old enough to be mercury, there are only about half a dozen mercury lanterns in Bournemouth. All of the GEC Z5580s are SON. And Bournemouth has just started replacing all of its lanterns with LED lanterns. Poole is going to follow suit too.

[sevenman96]

2014 seems to be the year LED has really took off in a lot of areas.

[Gareth]

Yep, they're being rolled out en masse on northern districts of Liverpool, both for main roads and side roads. Other areas are getting them where casual replacements occur. The light reminds me a lot of the old mercury lights we used to have. Especially when they're near trees and you can see a green grow. Liverpool's been using SOX on side roads since 1972 and on main roads since as long ago as the 1930s. It's a very big and sudden change.

[WHBM]

While we are discussing the various lamp types disappearing, is there any Tungsten left on public highways ? If not, when did the last ones go ?

It's all a bit ironic when you consider that quite a number of roads in London I use daily still have gas lighting.

[sotonsteve]

The last tungsten GLS street light in Hampshire went about two years ago. West Sussex and Kent still have some lanterns which were designed for tungsten but now have compact fluorescent lamps fitted.

[M56phil]

Some good news.....

Was on a weekend trip to north west Lancashire and Southern Cumbria....what do I find???

Quite abit of old mercury lanterns....

The village of 'Beetham' just off the A6 has some revo types I think in the high street. The bowls look very yellowed.

Further north, again on the A6 on the mainline at the southern junction of the road for the village of Haversham are two mercury type lamps. The village of Haversham (East and parallel to the A6) has numerous mercury lamps, including an extremely rare 'glass bowl' type one. Don't know which type it is, but similar ones I've seen in the village of Greyrigg in Cumbria also. These bowl lamps were common in Southern Scotland up until the 1980s.

Based on my directions, you should find them!

Many thanks, M56phil

[M56phil]

Oh, a final point. I saw the lamps in the daytime. So, I don't know if they are still effectively mercury or changed to SON. Either way, it's great to see such vintage lamps still in use!

Thanks

[Truvelo]

In Beetham I can see a Z5590 and the Revo type you mentioned although it doesn't look like a Prefect.

In Heversham I can also see the same Revo type as in Beetham but I couldn't find the rare glass bowl ones.

[Chris5156]

Here's a nice one still intact on what has become a busy main road - I assume the whole street once had these, but this one was saved because the creation of a roundabout meant that it now stands on a service road out of the way.

[sotonsteve]

That one may actually be a tungsten (or CFL retrofit) rather than a mercury. Dartford had a small number more of these until recent years, when Kent have been rolling out Mini Iridiums using CosmoPolis lamps to replace relics.

[Gareth]

One of the few remaining Liverpool Highfield Manor lanterns has now gone in Kildonan Road. There's now a Mallatite hockey stick with an LED lantern. There must be no more than five left now.

[Truvelo]

The GEC Z5590s on the B660 in Catworth have virtually all been replaced with Iridiums. This must have taken place in the last few months. There's just a handful of AC Ford's left in the village which I suspect will also bite the dust soon.

So sad to see historic mercury succumbing to the I-Illness

[nick217]

I know of a few little villages still burning Mercury but as lamps fail they are being replaced with CFL Riga's and Jets.

[brummie_rob]

Just wondering if this mercury example still exists:https://goo.gl/maps/ZSJef

Google hasn't been down that way since 2012 (seems Sutton Coldfield has been denied any streetview since then, yet south Birmingham has been done around 6-7 times in some areas as recent as July 2015!).

[sotonsteve]

The PFI replacements should technically be complete by now, so the chances of this lighting surviving is incredibly slim.

In Southampton, only four mercury lanterns remain on public highways. The PFI core investment period is over, but the contractors are glacially-slowly picking away at unfinished business.

[Patrick Harper]

There are a few villages in Herts and Beds that are still completely lit with MBF lamps. The closest one to me is Aldbury, I'm not sure whether the lights there are maintained by the parish or the county council. If it is the latter then they will be replaced with LEDs next year.

[Truvelo]

Sutton Coldfield is unique in Birmingham because it didn't become part of city until 1974 there are lots of concrete which was never used in Birmingham.

[brummie_rob]

Sutton Coldfield is unique in Birmingham because it didn't become part of city until 1974 there are lots of concrete which was never used in Birmingham.

There are some interesting street light examples which are different to most of the city. You can see the concrete lamps where they stuck on a newer metal top in some parts

[Gareth]

The last mercury-running Highfield Manor lantern was replaced a few weeks ago (Adcote Close, Huyton). The reason it was still running mercury was that the boundary between Liverpool CC & Knowsley MBC was changed in the early 90s. Thus, Knowsley didn't have Liverpool's policy of using plug-in SON lamps for mercury lanterns. It's now been replaced with a metal halide lantern on a metal pole, as has the metal CU column with Liverpool Bracket in the middle of the cul-de-sac. Boo!

There's only two left still operating. Sands Roads in Mossley Hill and South Hunter Street in the city centre. Both are running SON-E bulbs.The Sands Road one is lucky to have survived as the whole area was upgraded to LED, except that one lantern. They spared it for some reason. Probably because it wasn't SOX. The South Hunter Street one is prone to day burning and being off at night time. I think the timer is out of synch, probably due to power cuts and they can't be bothered fixing it. Chances are they'll 'fix it' by changing the lantern for an LED one with a photocell in the not too distant future.

There's also two non-operational ones left. Little Heyes Street in Anfield and one on by Goodison Avenue. The latter I think now belongs to Everton FC. It has no bulb in it but otherwise looks in good condition. It may even still be live. The former was retired in favour of a Mallatite hockey stick with Beta 5 SOX lantern in 2010 but was never taken down and stands there dead five years on.

[M56phil]

It's a real shame that the high field manor lanterns are going. I had no idea there were so few left. I reckon that within a couple of years they will all be gone.

I was surprised that one still ran on Mercury, that's a mega rare find. Now extinct. I remember when there were hundreds of these lamps across the city. It definitely gave the city a 'Garden City' feel from the 50s/60s.

In Birmingham they have the high field manor 'equivalent' called the 'Hatfield lantern' (I think!!!) which ran on Mercury.

Are any of these left after with all the LEDs being installed in Birmingham??????

Incidentally, I'm sure I saw years ago Hatfield lanterns in Stoke on Trent. Is this correct???