Chichester in West Sussex shows how modern lighting can be installed without being intrusive.
On the main thoroughfares of East, West and North Street, within the medieval walled part of the city, Lumas are installed side entry on short wall brackets, many of them new. Whilst most brackets are black, I did spot one that had been painted off white to match the building it was mounted on.
The Luma presents a low profile/silhouette, and when combined with the small brackets, makes the installations unobtrusive, almost invisible. It makes a refreshing change compared to the "norm" of oversized Albany style lanterns on columns usually far too tall and complete with embellishment kits in an attempt to make the columns look old.
Further care has been taken when the wall mounted cutout boxes have been replaced. With the demise of AC Ford, who widely supplied such boxes, cast aluminium boxes painted black, but manufactured by SUGG have been used. These are particularly narrow but tall - similar to the dimensions of a feeder pillar.
Where visible intrusion is less of an issue, the more normal GRP enclosure has been used, but in a stone rather than grey colour.
Pedestrian subway lighting uses Simmons Safeway subway light units with a single PL-40W lamp. A Mayflower internal node is fitted in each unit. This dims the lamps during the day and runs them at full power at night.
Whilst central Chichester retains all night lighting dimmed midnight to 0530, other areas are part night. Lavant immediately north of Chichester is one such area. The Libras are controlled by Zodion SS9s, 35/18 Lux. Switch off time started just after 0015. Given there is no central management system, the lanterns turn off individually, the relays making a very noticeable click - probably as the (residential) streets had no traffic.
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