The main seafront road on Hayling looked like this in 1965 with a newly concreted road and new streetlights. During the 1970s many old 'shacks' were knocked down and new houses and flats were built. The road was then resurfaced with tarmac and the columns were given new lanterns in the form of Philips MI50's. During the 1990s a few MI26's replaced failed lanterns. However by this time some columns were very rusty. So in 2003/4 they were all were replaced and the scene now looks like this.

Crumbs, brand new slimline S&L columns in what was the darker shade of "Hampshire Green" paint used back then with equally new and clear bowled Phosco P153s.

I had thought that style of column was "late 1960s" based on known dates that some roads in south Hampshire that had these columns were built, but your picture now shows they were available earlier than previously thought. Excellent find.

A couple of pictures from Portsmouth,

A busy Twyford Avenue in September 1969


And now in 2009


The next picture is Queen Street in 1962


The row of buildings on the right were demolished between 1968-70 so the road could be widened due to increased traffic.

And now in 2009

Here are another couple of images from Colchester:


The junction of North Hill, Middleborough and St. Peter's Street, which is at the bottom of North Hill. This photograph, from a 1966 book called Colchester: An Historic Townscape by Essex County Council's Planning Department is of special significance to me, as I now live in St. Peter's Street.


The same junction photographed a few minutes ago. There's no sign of the old fluorescents, which won't surprise anyone. The double fluorescent on the corner now has a 250w SON SGS203 at 10 metres with an appropriately cooked bowl, and the fluorescents in the road behind were replaced with the blue-painted GEC Z8524s at 10 metres when the adjacent cattle market was moved to the edge of town about 30 years ago.

It's certainly nice to know that my road once had an iconic three-eighty at the end of it!

And another one!


This photo of the junction of East Street and Greenstead Road in Colchester was photographed for the 1966 book Colchester: An Historic Landscape by Essex County Council's Planning Department. The double-arm lamp standard in the middle of the junction is quite possibly the funkiest I've seen in all of Colchester's archives, and could well be a converted tram traction pole (there are still four converted tram traction poles - all over 100 years old - in Greenstead Road on the left).


Fast forward about 45 years to the same scene this morning. Sadly the funky column has long gone, but it's been replaced by a similarly unusual arrangement - a concrete 'stub' column with just 2 metres exposed, but topped with three aluminium sleeves to bring the mounting height up to 10 metres. The lantern - an old, deep-bowled GEC Z9554 puzzlingly runs a 90w tube. A better picture of the unusual, modern-day arrangement can be seen here.

Wow, that double bracket looks a bit "fragile". I wonder if those are open mercury or open SOH lanterns?

I think you mean the sleeves are galvanised rather than aluminium on the more "modern" installation.   My shot  here!

The double fluorescent bracket is equally unusual.

That's a hell of a corner bracket installation! I'm suprised the column isn't leaning with the uneven load of two 5" florries on it

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Wow, looks like a SOX ESLA.

Salisbury, 19th April 1969. Construction of the ring road and what would later become Churchill Way is nearing completion. Just visible are what I believe are CU Highway X columns - I have seen pictures elsewhere showing these with twin brackets and SOX lantrens. Beyond the bridge is a new housing estate. GEC Z9480 lanterns on Stanton and Staveley columns are visible. Courtesy of David Mant.



Same location, 17th January, 2010.

More vegetation, the semaphore signals have gone, the class 205 "Hampshire" DEMU has also been scrapped. The concrete columns on the ring road have also been replaced by steel columns. Some of the Z9480s and their columns still exist however on the housing estate although the trees make them difficult to see.

The latest update from Simon Cornwell triggered a few fond memories for me.

Cardiff, near the castle, early 1960s.

By the time I was there as a student in the early 1990s those fluorescents were long gone. Stanton 8 columns were still around in the vicinity fitted with 8F brackets, so I wonder if these brackets were retrofitted later to the existing columns? The road in the background by then had 10m Stanton and Staveley Concretes, and I think a few still had GEC saucers running SON, although the majority were sleeved by then with ZX3s.

The present view.

Almost changed out of recognition. GSV doesn't give an exact view as the 1960s picture was taken from a building window and the SV car hasn't done all of the road as part of it is now a dead end/service road.

The right hand traffic light is in the approximate position of the stripped sign post in the first picture. On the castle wall, the tower to the immediate right of the right hand traffic light is the one on the right of the 1960's picture. Some of the sleeved columns from my student days remain in the background, but those which replaced the fluorescents are long gone, replaced around the millennium with contemporary columns.