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Now and then
http://ukastle.co.uk/discussion/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7
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Author:  Stelmer [ Sat Apr 14, 2012 1:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Now and then

Phosco152 wrote:
Now and then with a difference...

Back in 1984, I visited Hong Kong. Today, whilst looking for something else, I came across this picture taken in April 1984 of the YWCA building on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. 2 GEC Clearmains on probably 1950/60s columns complete with high level gear boxes can be seen. Although I can't be sure for certain, they were probably running mercury - unlike my visit in 2007, when SON predominated in HK.

Image

Fast forward 25 years to this GSV image from 2009. The building is still there, it’s still the YWCA, although the building has been painted - although I prefer the original look. The Clearmains have long gone - and look what is in their place.  :roll:


I'm more shocked at the road name. Imagine that over here and explaining it to a salesperson  :lol:  :lol:  :oops:

Author:  Phosco152 [ Sat Apr 14, 2012 4:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Now and then

I very much doubt that the Cantonese pronunciation is the same as how it is written in English... Anyway back on topic, I found this image in a newspaper cutting from May 1972, Colman House, Maidstone, Kent. Note the twin bracket fluorescent and vintage traffic lights.

Image

The roads in that area have now been pedestrianised so a direct GSV picture isn't possible. However this view is taken from the opposite direction with heritage lighting from another era visible..  :roll:

The camera position for the first image would have been behind the bus that is behind the traffic lights in the GSV image.

Author:  QSM Quandary [ Sat Apr 14, 2012 10:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Now and then

In common with Hong Kong, the Malaysian capital city of Kuala Lumpur was in the British empire so familiar looking old relics could be seen below from the days of concrete columns up to the present:

http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu270/taurus64/JlnPekeliling1970_OriginalSize.jpg

http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu270/taurus64/ChowKitArea1980s.jpg

http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu270/taurus64/DewanBahasa60s-1-1.jpg

http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu270/taurus64/MuziumNegara60s-1.jpg

http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu270/taurus64/JlnTunPerak1970aOriginalSize.jpg

http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu270/taurus64/KL_Railway_Station_1970_Original_Size.jpg

http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu270/taurus64/KL79-003.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/71144572@N00/1053671991/sizes/o/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/71144572@N00/1054531704/sizes/o/in/photostream/

http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu270/taurus64/KL79-007.jpg

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/46622557.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/71144572@N00/1054540620/sizes/o/in/photostream/

The lantern types seen in present day Kuala Lumpur, can vary from the Eclatec Clip to Urbis Onyx however the most frequently seen lanterns are usually the Urbis Z2 and Z3 fitted on hockeystick brackets, like the example below, is the Malaysian standard:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rovingisydney/5332417425/

Sadly on my trip, not so long ago, the only "British" relics I could spot were geared Thorn Alpha 3s and Alpha 30s, MkII & MkIII Alpha 8s. No GEC lanterns unfortunately. New Eclatec Clips were spreading around like wildfire.

Author:  Phosco152 [ Sun Apr 15, 2012 7:17 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Now and then

QSM - Excellent pictures, especially the concrete bracket columns. The bottom of the bracket where it attaches to the column looks similar to Stanton, but the base says CU. I take it they must have have been cast locally and not shipped all that way?

It has been a while since I went to KL, so I don't really remember the lighting, nor do I remember the street furniture having quite as much "of the British look" in the late 80s ( I was there in 1988) as HK did back in 1984 or even 2007.

Your last link of KL railway station "now" compared to the 1970 image is also worthy of comment, still curvy bracket columns, but more of them, and taller and more traffic and no British cars!

Author:  Phosco152 [ Tue May 01, 2012 7:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Now and then

Sotonsteve found this image of Basingstoke dated 1978. The tower block was at the time occupied by IBM, whilst the Civil Service used the one on the left. Note the Alpha 3s.

Fast forward 33 years...(my image was taken in 2011)

Image

Behind the red car you can just see a traffic light head, that is at the turning on the right in the Flickr image. The telephone pole on the right in the Flickr image is covered to the top in ivy in my image (looking like a conifer behind the red car) and, the white house on the right with the window, is the same white house by the telephone pole in Flickr. So it looks like the terrace on the left got demolished. It would be where the road signs are in the far distance on the left - level with the grey car in the left background.

Alpha 3s replaced by gear in shoe MA90s. The tower block on the left in the Flickr image has been demolished and replaced by the "yellow" tower block. The Festival Place shopping centre occupies most of the background.

The glass clad tower block is actually the IBM tower but re-clad, extended and now residential use.

In the same set of pictures are also Gamma 4s, fluorescent lanterns on S&L stay bar bracket columns and CU Highway X columns with fluorescents.

Author:  Lampman [ Tue Feb 05, 2013 4:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Now and then

A few pictures from Portsmouth.

Winston Churchill Avenue in 1980 and in 2012
Fratton Road in 1980 and in 2012
Mile End Road in 1980 and in 2012
The A3 London Road in the late 1970s and in 2012

Much of the lighting in these pictures survived until the mid 2000's.
More Here

Author:  Alex [ Tue Feb 05, 2013 7:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Now and then

Absolutely fantastic comparisons. Thanks for these - it is interesting to see how much the scenery has changed if anything!

Author:  Phosco152 [ Mon Aug 26, 2013 1:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Now and then

Bracknell, The Crossways circa 1965.

Bracknell, The Crossways Monday 26th August 2013.

Image

Note the buildings above the canopies and the square windows of what was the Co-Operative department store in the left, and the low rise building in the background - the tower block is newer.

The GEC 845X lanterns would have been to the left of the second, furthest bench.

Everything in this image is shortly due for demolition.

Also in Bracknell, Priestwood Square circa 1960. Note the GEC Z5640 lantern on a CU column.

Priestwood Square Monday 26th August 2013.

Image

Surprisingly little changed - the trees in the background have grown a bit!  Davis Post Top lanterns on steel columns now light the arcade.

Author:  mazeteam [ Tue Aug 27, 2013 12:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Now and then

The design of the buildings in Priestwood Square looks remarkably similar to some council housing round this way (this particular view is of what was the local shop until I was about 2 and we moved house):
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ll ... 8,,0,-0.35

Certain bits of the design don't match, but there's enough which comes close.

Author:  Rojojnr [ Tue Sep 24, 2013 9:53 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Now and then

Here's a bit of now and then from Ilford, after I stumbled across these photos of the town in 1970-80 on Friends Reunited last night:

Greengate (named after the pub - now McDonalds - across the road) in Newbury Park was lit in 1970-80 with GEC Z9564s. I think the Z9564s you can see opposite the pub were replaced with MA50s on double-brackets installed on the traffic light islands, before they were replaced with the current MRL6s in the mid 1990s, as I seem to remember them in about 1992/3 when I was just a toddler. The MRL6s have retained the double-bracket arrangement on the crossings. The columns you can see on Horns Road in the background in the Streetview (one with a ZX3 and its original bracket, the others with Furyos with their fancy brackets - all the columns would have looked like the ZX3 installation before the Furyos) must date to the 1980s (probably when B&Q on the left was constructed) as I can't see them there in the 1970-80 view.

Ilford High Road, like many of the other roads in the town centre, were lit with Alpha 3s installed on what look like 1950s S&L columns. These installations are now long gone - they were replaced with Urbis Saturns identical to these in probably the late 1980s, before being replaced with Philips Metronomis Oslos in the mid 2000s. Even the Metronomises are not here anymore - over the last few months they've been retrofitted with Philips Citysouls. Knowing how ahead of its time Redbridge is, I reckon the Alpha 3 was the "in thing" at the time!

Ilford Broadway had the same Alpha 3 installations before being replaced with Urbis Saturns identical to these in about 1994, which were then replaced with Philips Metronomis Oslos. Most of these have been retrofitted over the last few months with Furyos due to their slightly poor condition. The Thorn Gammas you can see on the central islands in the "then" photo were replaced with Urbis Stratoses, which themselves are now gone due to the junction realignment scheme a few years ago, where the Metronomises replaced them.

These globe lanterns still largely remain, but it looks as if most of the brackets were chopped off when the Exchange shopping centre was built in the early 1990s, as the columns now only have two or three brackets on them. The light output from these columns must have been extremely excessive and caused hell of a lot of skyglow at night (probably why they've been downgraded).

Ilford Lane was lit with what look like shallow-bowled Thorn Alpha 5s on 1950s S&L columns. These were replaced with bowled SGS204s in the early 1990s, which themselves have now been replaced with these, which I believe to be Urbis lanterns.

More Alpha 3s here on what used to be Ilford Lane but is now a dual carriageway called Winston Way (Ilford's ring road), which according to a source I cannot recall opened in 1985. The original installations to the new road were MRL6s on double-brackets, but these have now been retrofitted with Sapphires and Philips Milewides have replaced them on the roundabout.

These I remember well! GR150s on 1950s S&L columns with long brackets used to grace Ley Street, but they were replaced in Redbridge's mass replacement scheme in the mid 1990s with ZX3s, which still stand today.

Before the Exchange shopping centre was built, it looks as if Ley Street once ran all the way through to Cranbrook Road by what was then C&A. Either GR150s or Alpha 5s on S&L columns used to light the road, while Alpha 3s lit Cranbrook Road and what was then a traffic light junction. The view today is barely recognizable! Some modern post-tops (just visible in the background) were installed very recently in front of the Exchange.

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