Disc Street Lights – The Bees Knees. CU Phosco Model P178 Mercury Vapour Street Light – Kenton Bar Estate

After following up a lead I got from Shades I now have the following good stuff concerning a tiny detail that many of us will not remember until prompted, but has always ben in my memory. The street lights on Kenton Bar were of a specific type that is sadly all now gone. The perimeter road, Hazeldene Avenue used “standard” road lighting but the internal areas of the estate used a cool white light with a very distinctive black and white disc shaped shade. It seems likely that the original lighting on the pedestrian areas of Kenton Bar Estate were of the type made by CU Phosco Model number P178. Here, for your delectation I have some lovely photos courtesy of Mike Barford, who collects street lighting! (Mike's Site Is HERE) and was kind enough to send me some high quality photos as well as allow me to take some other stuff from his site like the CU Phosco catalogue.  The light cast that beautiful milky white light because of the opaque white shade and the fact that a mercury vapour arc lamp sheds an intense white light. I would describe the light as reminiscent of strong moonlight

His site is a goldmine of street lighting information and I will be back to his site to try and identify the other street lights seen on this blog from time to time. You should pay Mike’s site a visit – well worth looking.

Mike said in his email: “The P178 normally had a black canopy and base spigot - all very evocative of the "space age", of course.”

The CU Phosco P178 as seen on Kenton Bar Estate 1960's & 1970's
	The internal workings. This is NOT the timer which was housed in the bulbous lower stem of the lamp post. Rumour has it that the door of the timer housing could be opened with an iced lollipop stick and the timer set to come on during the day and to switch off at night – who would do such a dastardly thing? Later on the council stopped the opening of the housings by putting a stainless steel metal strap around the lamp post.  I once saw a vagabond squirt petrol through the hole through and set it alight. By the way can anyone remember the colour of the lamp posts? Dark grey springs to my mind. This picture shows the ballast and choke for an 80W mercury vapour lamp
	The Spigot - cast in aluminium this is the method by which the lamp is attached to the top of the lamp post. The spigot would have fitted inside the tube of the lamp post and been bolted into position so under normal circumstances only the flange would have been visible and maybe an external screw or bolt head. There is an alternate spigot with 4 screws but I don;t have a picture of it.
	Internal workings top view showing the back of the reflector plate. If you look at the full sized version of this picture which is taken from an angle it is interesting to note that there seems to be a threaded hole in the centre of the plate. This is presumably to allow the fixing of the upper shade by means of the knurled screw as seen on the last picture below. Presumably there was a grommet or seal between the two halves of the shade to stop ingress of rain?
	Bottom view looking up the spigot - ooo-errr missus as Frankie would have said
	The magnificence herself. A side view of the P178 in all it's glory. Notably in the booklet/catalogue below the white part is described as vandal proof. Now I know this to be untrue. I was once in conversation with a bounder from Thirston Way who told me off the record that the shade could be breeched by the close up use of an air rifle. It had to be a .22 calibre as the slug of a .177 was not heavy enough (so I was told). It was even easier to breech the shade with the use of a steel or even a pointed slug which were by the way available for purchase in tins of 100 or 200 pieces at Bagnall & Kirkwood in Newcastle’s Bigg Market OR at Kenton Hardware along at North Kenton Shops. Myself? of course being a fellow member of the boy scouts along with GOM never indulged in such wanton acts of youthful anger and anarchy

I also found that some progressive places like Carlisle still have villages that use the CU Phosco P178. Look at the stuff below taken from http://www.plasticplanet.co.uk by kind permission of the site owner Andrew Pate. This fellow even has a CU Phosco P178 in his back garden and I must say it makes a brilliant patio light.

From Andrew’s site:

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The following pictures show a Phosco P178 in Kirkbampton, a little village near Carlisle.

I went down to the Council offices on the 03-06-2005, while I was there Dave and I spotted a Phosco in the skip. We pulled it out and I brought it home.

I started to restore it on the 03-09-2005. The following pictures show the fitting being stripped down. The lantern was in good condition, it just needed a clean.

Once I got the fitting in pieces I could start the cleaning.

As can be seen from the above photos the fitting cleaned up nicely. Once I got it to this state it was ready to be mounted on the pole.

 

I was very pleased with this lantern. The following pictures show the lantern going through the warm up period.

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Incidentally the days of mercury vapour lights are numbered as they are set to be banned in the next few years. No doubt those killjoys from the EU or something want to rid us of this simple pleasure. Write to your MP demanding action or we will all be condemned forever to those ghastly LED lights or the horrible yellow sodium vapour

Now GOM – a  task for you. I want you to track down a picture of the spiral climbing frame near the former children’s home.