Prompted by Simon Cornwell's appearance on our regional news programme Look East last week, which reported on the imminent destruction of Cambridge's iconic Richardson Candles by the PFI (see this thread on StreetlightingUK), I leapt in the car last Sunday afternoon and took the short trip up to Cambridge to see the lanterns in the flesh for the very first, and almost certainly the very last time too. In the lyrics of Marc Almond, I said hello and waved them goodbye

Sadly I missed the Look East programme, and also missed it on iPlayer by a few hours, so I do not know the date they are due to be removed, if this has already been set. There didn't seem to be much evidence of a PFI on the day I travelled to Cambridge, but my journey was limited to just one road in and another road out.


This Richardson Candle in Trumpington Street compliments the architecture of the Fitzwilliam Museum behind it. A few streets in the city centre still have many Richardson Candles lighting them.


As well as the many post-mounted Richardson Candles, several wall-mounted Candles can be found in the city centre, like this one in Wheeler Street.


According to Simon Cornwell's excellent write up on the Richardson Candles, the installation is now well over fifty years old, which was double their design life.

This may explain why it seemed like, on the day I visited, about a quarter of them were dayburning, a quarter of them didn't seem to have enough power to illuminate their tubes and just flickered away - irrespective of whether they were dayburning or tried to come on at the right time, a further quarter of them functioned perfectly well, but another quarter of them didn't light at all. These dayburning examples were in Trumpington Street.


On his web site, Simon Cornwell documents a trial designed to extend the life of the Richardson Candles, by converting them to use a modern light source and modern optics. Only one of the converted Candles remains (in Trumpington Street), but it was one of the day-burners last Sunday.


The proposed replacements for the Richardson Candles are already installed opposite King's College in King's Parade, but the Candles they are replacing are still in situ and still switched to the supply, although that does not guarantee they work at night. The new, more directional 'needle' lanterns run metal halide lamps and do vastly improve the level of illuminance along King's Parade.


The Richardson Candles are classed as a Group A lighting installation, and would be inappropriate for some of Cambridge city centre's narrower roads and footpaths. Thankfully, there are a few ancient Group B installations to fill in the gaps.


When night falls, those Candles that still work switch on, and the dusk street scenes are well worth seeing if the journey is not too far. Cambridge has free parking in many city-centre locations all day on Sundays.


Also switching on at dusk were these wall-mounted Group B two-forty fluorescents in Botolph Lane and Free School Lane.


The view south along Trumpington Street at dusk is reminiscent of a bygone age, and within a few weeks or months, this street scene will be no more. There are two more Candles in this street scene, but both of them failed to light.


Those of you with keen eyes may have spotted that the closest lantern in the previously posted photo is not a Richardson Candle at all, but is in fact a REVO Festival. Now York's Festivals have gone, is this the last working REVO Festival on a public highway in the UK?


Another street scene from Trumpington Street that can be enjoyed for the very short duration it remains.


A Richardson Candle in St John's Street. The greatest regret about the Candles is that, although they use four 80w fluorescent tubes which sounds like it should be plenty of light, their design means they are easily outperformed, even by modern side road lanterns which, unlike the Candles, direct the light down on to the pavement and road.

This 'fault' has been their downfall and means they do regrettably belong to a bygone era and are not suitable for a modern city.

The debate about Cambridge's unique Richardson Candles, as mentioned on Look East and discussed in the local paper, will surely continue until they meet their modern-day reaper - who carries a disc-cutter in place of his scythe - and they are never seen again.

A superb and thoughtful post David; it is inevitable that the Candles will have to go at some point, but its nice to think that they have survived long enough for today's generation to witness them, and get a feel for how our city streets were illuminated 50 years ago. Fantastic pictures as always.

Claire

Excellent photographs and write up David.

I really hope negotiations are in place to save some (hopefully all) of these iconic lanterns. Them GEC Two-Fourties really need to be saved too. Ideally preserved in situ and still used.

Same here, I do hope that they can be saved. So whoever is doing the PFI replacement in Cambridge could really be notified that there is some intrest in these iconic lanterns to rescued and preserved.

As always great pics, David.

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From streetlighting to radio, dance through the night whilst the streetlights are glowing outside.

Excellent pictures.... And unless Simon C goes out the day before they are removed, these may well be the last 'switch on' pictures of the Candles and Festivals in use. The same reason for the demise of the Candles is also why York's Festivals went: the upright design meant the light flux went outwards instead of downwards and didn't light the road well enough; also, the 4 tubes per lantern also means quite high costs involved with revisiting the same lanterns regularly to replace yet another tube.

The wall mounted Two-Forty's are well worth saving, and certainly would make an interesting addition to any collection. I myself would like a Candle, if they become available, and ideally 2 sets of wall-mounting brackets (so I could mount the Candle and my Festival onto a house wall in the future)... I well expect Simon has his eyes on the modern Candle conversion as well as an original Candle, so as to compare both side-by-side.

It will be a sad day when these go... as it will be the last vertical fluorescent installation to light a main roadway. Other Festivals exist, but these are limited to civic squares and amenity areas.

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Simon C posted this on the Yahoo group.

It mentions only 19 of the candles. Simon's history lists a total of 49 surviving candles in 2008. Does this mean some will still be removed, but others are safe? Also does this mean some form of refurbishment on the survivors will be carried out or does the listing not include retaining them as operational?

That is fantastic news!


Yes, with new metal-halide "needles" already breathing down the necks of some of them, their listed status coming into force today was just in the nick of time!

I wonder who was behind the campaign to get them listed? Was it The Twentieth Century Society themselves. Although they have made no mention of their involvement in getting them listed, they would certainly already have been aware of architect Sir Albert Richardson through their work.

Fantastic also to see that The Twentieth Century Society have linked to Simon Cornwell's excellent write-up about the Richardson Candles as their primary source of information for visitors to their site. Although Simon's write-up has been studied in depth by street lighting enthusiasts up and down the land (it was certainly my only source of reference when I planned my trip there) it is fabulous to know there will be a new influx of visitors to his page as a result of today's announcement. Perhaps these visitors from The Twentieth Century Society will stay a while and see why the history and heritage of Britain's street lighting should fascinate them as much as the history and heritage of Britain's architecture does (or, dare I say it, mourn at its near-complete absence these days).

Perhaps Simon's excellent write-up played a part in getting them listed!

At this early stage, it is difficult to know why only nineteen Candles have been listed when there are more than twice that many still in existence. Will they keep just the wall-mounted ones, as they can be disconnected and left there in perpetuity without any risk of them being knocked down. Else I wonder if they have a certain location in mind - perhaps the one or two streets which have the highest tourist footfall, where they know they have enough Candles to make up a complete installation without casual replacements to spoil the view.

In an ideal world, I'd like them to be placed on brand new strong columns that exactly replicate the existing columns (which show the Candles at their best) but sited at the back of the kerb so they cannot be knocked down, as so many of them have in the past. I have no idea how to solve the lighting issue, apart from perhaps creating a circular venetian blind-style louvre to direct the light down (as you see on bollard lights) which would run the full-height of the 'cone'. The cone would have to be replaced with a less opaque version to further help direct the light downwards. The louvre could also be modified to block backspill onto buildings if needed. It is not beyond the expertise of lighting engineers to create a better solution than the one they tried a few years ago with shielded metal halide lamps in the top and bottom of the Candle, especially with LEDs now offering the opportunity to create far more optically-controlled directional light.

And by listing only half of the Candles, it means they can put the rest in storage and have enough spare parts to keep them going for the next fifty years and beyond!

I would well expect that it's the wall-mounted versions that are being listed. Whether this includes any wall-mounted festivals or those two-forties, we have yet to find out.... In addition to what may happen with the rest of the candles

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It's a fantastic idea but I think there's a danger of the listed candles becoming features, rather than functioning lanterns. I for one would hate that idea as i believe things should be periodically used, not just left as an ornament.
Their condition would decline without them being used and maintained also.

The Candles were in a shocking condition when I visited a few weeks ago - not in a physical way (they still look magnificent and strong), but in an operational way. About a quarter of them were dayburning, another quarter of them failed to light at all when night came, and the tubes in several more were misfiring, causing the lantern to randomly dim and brighten, or randomly light and extinguish.  It was very sad to see.

It was as if the council knew the PFI was coming, and had consciously made the decision not to throw any more resources at them to keep them going. Alternatively, perhaps the council have been maintaining them as best as they could with their available resources, but the gear and internal wiring is so ancient now that no matter how hard they try, the lanterns will randomly misfire, dayburn or fail to light at all.

In non-PFI'd counties like Essex, the contractors keep old lanterns going until the time and cost of call-outs threatens to exceed the cost of putting a new one up (Colchester's Alpha Sixes are a good example of this). Putting up a new lantern is not a luxury Cambridge has when it comes to the Richardson Candles, so unless they are refurbished soon, the Candles will simply extinguish themselves and become ornaments given enough time!

The recent installation of Thorn Alumets in Colchester's Lion Walk Shopping Centre is enough evidence to prove that, if Cambridge has the desire, they could refurbish the Candles with new gear and more efficient lamps to help them meet modern lighting standards.


Whoops, I meant the back of the pavement! Being sited at the back of the kerb has been many of the Candles' downfall - quite literally - in recent years.