Frinton-on-Sea has always sat a little uneasily among its near-neighbours of Jaywick, Clacton-on-Sea, Holland-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze. With its wide tree-lined avenues and large detached houses, it was purposely-built to attract the upper-middle classes - to Essex no less - and many covenants were created to protect the town's way of life accordingly. The absence of fast food joints, cafes and kiosks along the seafront keeps the town litter-free. Buses were banned from passing over the level crossing gates until the 1980s, fish and chips didn't arrive in the town until 1992 (after a bitter planning battle), and the town didn't get its first pub until 2000 (after another bitter planning battle).
Even today the town still has a 1950s feel to it, and that trend has been reflected in its street lighting. When Essex County Council moved away from MBF/U in the 1970s and SOX casual replacements started appearing in mercury-lit streets for the first time, the most upmarket area of Frinton - the area inside the sorely-missed level crossing gates - escaped such an indignity, and the Council were still installing new MBF/U Phosco P111s in the town (to match the town's existing street lighting) up until Phosco removed the MBF/U option from the P111 a few years ago.
A mile of mercury. Here is The Esplanade, the road that runs along Frinton sea front, photographed in December 1997. Despite Essex County Council moving away from MBF/U in the 1970s, there are no non-MBF/U casual replacements to be seen here.
The same scene photographed eighteen years later in September 2015. The advancing years of the original Concrete Utilities "Edinburgh" columns has coincided with the removal of the MBF/U option from the Phosco P111, with inevitable consequences.
Although metal halide, fluorescent or LED could have ensured white light continuity for Frinton, Essex County Council has, to my knowledge, never embraced white light except for local beautification schemes and the limited trial of LED in 2015. Having said that, the Council has just announced that it is rolling out LED lighting only to locations where the street lighting remains on all night.
April 2007 - Frinton sea front was originally lit with mercury Phosco P109s on CU Edinburgh columns. Mercury P109 casual replacements were originally used for knockdowns, but in recent years the Phosco P111 has been the lantern of choice.
September 2015 - The Esplanade between Frinton Golf Club (at the southern end of the town) and Connaught Avenue (the main shopping street) showing new SON P111s interspersed with older MBF/U P111s.
March 2016 - two views of The Esplanade between the Crescent Gardens and Connaught Avenue. Frinton would never entertain the idea of multicoloured seafront illuminations, but the current mix of MBF/U and SON lighting is a good try!
March 2016 - The Esplanade between the Crescent Gardens and the other end of the town. Once the far corner is turned, you are in Walton-on-the-Naze.
September 2015 - the original part of Frinton (inside the level crossing) was lit with mercury Phosco P111s on CU "Byway X" columns. These P111s were replaced on a like-for-like basis until Phosco stopped selling the MBF/U P111, upon which SON P111s casual replacements started to appear.
Once in a while, even a rogue SOX casual replacement would appear in mercury-lit Frinton, like in Hadleigh Road above. The above photograph and all the photographs below were taken two weeks ago (March 2016).
The change from MBF/U to SON has gathered momentum in the last year or so, and the gentle night-time appearance of the last mercury-lit town that I know of in Essex is changing significantly. This stretch of Hadleigh Road on the left escapes for now, but the top end of The Crescent on the right has been changed over to SON.
Evidence in The Crescent that column replacements are ongoing.
Looking back along The Crescent to where the previous-but-one photograph was taken. One thing for sure is that, even though the quality of the light has reduced, the quantity of light from the new SON P111s is far greater than the previous MBF/U P111s.
This corner in The Crescent has escaped the new lighting for now and is still bathed in gentle mercury light.
Many other roads, for example Old Parsonage Way above, have fared less well. A further erosion of once-high standards is also evident here - Phosco P567s are being used to replace P111s.
Although Essex County Council are not obliged to use P111s except in the town's conservation area - circa. half of the upmarket area that originally had P111s - they have done so in the past to retain Frinton's unique character. However, it seems that austerity is now king and there is no money left in the budget for any specials.
The Frinton Residents Association would like all of the town inside the level crossing (the "upmarket" area of Frinton) to retain the P111.To add further upset, it appears that the erosion of Frinton's unique character has been underway for some time judging by the inconsistent mounting heights in Pole Barn Lane.
Thankfully there are still some unspoilt pockets of mercury left in Frinton to enjoy for a little while longer, e.g. Hadleigh Road as viewed in the opposite direction of the tenth image in this post. There are no inconsistent mounting heights here!
Another part of Hadleigh Road that is still enjoying the gentle glow of mercury lighting for the time being. Sadly such installations are on borrowed time.
And this fantastic new faux-Art deco building on The Esplanade - which pays homage to Frinton's 1930s Art deco houses - will look a little less fantastic when it is illuminated by a SON casual replacement on the street outside!
So in conclusion, the last mercury-lit town that I know of in Essex is losing this unique feature to the onward march of high pressure sodium. Frinton did so well to carry on getting new MBF/U lanterns installed for so long considering the decision to stop installing new MBF/U lanterns elsewhere in Essex was taken over 40 years ago.
Although it seemed like Frinton-on-Sea enjoyed special status to allow new mercury lanterns to be installed until just a few years ago, the squeeze of austerity on the Council's lighting budget, the impending mercury ban and the withdrawal of the Phosco P111 MBF/U option has ended an amazingly long run of daytime and night-time lighting consistency in a rather unique town.