GEC: General Electric Company Ltd,

Wembley, London

GEC was a large London based company who made streetlighting for over 100 years along with 1000's of other types of electrical products. The Company finally ending its streetlighting manufacturing in the 1980's. GEC's streetlighting interests eventually passed to WRTL Ltd of Tipton, West Midlands, where, until recent times, they continued to manufacture a few of the GEC range of streetlighting lanterns.

 

GEC Z4001 Large Watford lantern

An example of a GEC large Watford Lantern is seen here at the Sandtoft Transport Centre, Sandtoft, South Yorkshire in 2005. The lantern seen is mounted onto a trolleybus traction pole and originally came from either Reading or London.

GEC Z5580 lantern

 

 

GEC Z5580 lantern on an ornate Lucy bracket and column, Worcestershire, 2005.

GEC Z5590 lantern

 

This GEC Z5590 80w MBF lantern stands disconnected prior to its removal in Northwood Park Estate, Wolverhampton in August 2005.

 

 

This neglected GEC Z5590 stands on the corner of an access road to RAF Cosford in Shropshire in April 2006. The lantern is seen day-burning, probably due to the two-part photocell failing; the greenish glow from the lamp suggests that its MBF lamp has been burning for months and is now nearing the end of its life. Adding further to the lantern's problems, the spring-clip on the badly discoloured bowl is incorrectly fastened and is likely to result in the bowl coming open in high winds.

Here's a full length view of the Cosford Z5590. Unlike the lantern, the Concrete Utilities (Avenue?) column looks to be in good order.

GEC Z5640 post-top lantern

 

This lovely old GEC Z5640 post top lantern dates from the early 1960's and is pictured in Nottinghamshire in 2006. Aside of the smaller 'hat', this lantern is identical to the 'mushroom-hatted' Z5643 post top lantern.

GEC Z5670-series of post-top lanterns

 

GEC Z5671 post-top lantern for 80w/125w MBF lamps, Wolverhampton. This unfortunate example has been used for air rifle target practice at some time in the past!

 

 

This GEC Z5678 post-top lantern for 35w SOX lamps in Dolgellau in North Wales looks as good as new.

 

GEC Z5680-series of post top lanterns

 

 

A GEC Z5681 post-top lantern for 80w/125w MBF lamps with original copper-coloured canopy in Sutton Coalfield in June 2006.

GEC Z5698U post-top lantern

This GEC Z5698U post-top lantern for 55w SOX lamps is pictured in Stapleford, Nottinghamshire.

 

 

A GEC Z5698U post top lantern for 55w SOX lamps burns brightly on an Autumn evening in 2005. The picture is taken in Toton, Nottinghamshire.

 

GEC Z5713 post top lantern

 

 

GEC Z5713 post top lantern for 35w SOX lamps with 11" tall cone. Picture taken in Lichfield, Staffordshire in June 2006.

 

GEC Z5718 post top lantern

 

 

GEC Z5718 post top lantern for 55w SOX lamps with 16" tall cone. Picture taken in Mapperley, Nottingham in August 2006.

GEC Z8128 Clearmain lantern

GEC 'Clearmain' lantern 250/400w MA/MB lantern with taper sided glass bowl, Farnham, Surrey, July 2005. Farnham is one of the few  remaining towns in the UK that still uses GEC Clearmain lanterns in any numbers to light its streets.

GEC 'Clearmain' 250/400w MA/MB lantern with GEC 'Difractor' glass bowl, Birmingham, West Midlands. The copper netting around the bowl is an original feature and was used on early examples of these lanterns to hold the glass bowl together should it become cracked or broken.

400w Clearmains on a crumbling twin-arm GEC concrete bracket, seen on an old industrial site in Cannock, Staffordshire in the Summer of 2005. Both of these lanterns have since been rescued and are now held in the collection.

 

 

GEC Z8260 MCF lantern

 

Pictured at Long Eaton railway station in August 2005 is this solitary GEC Z8260 lantern with two stacked 2ft 40w MCF tubes. The Z8260 lantern proved popular with British Railways in the 1960's and 1970's for station and platform lighting, and there are still examples to be found at some of the older un-modernised stations.

GEC Z8381 Three-Eighty fluorescent lantern

This GEC Three-Eighty lantern for 3 x 5ft 80w MCF tubes is one of five that are to be found in the old bus station at Haywards Heath, East Sussex. Dating from the1950's, these are amongst some of the last of their kind. Photo, July 2005.

Two more of the five surviving 'Three-Eighty' lanterns at Haywoods Heath; the nearest lantern's stay-bar support is evident in this picture

GEC Z8421 'Dioptrion' lantern

A long disused GEC 'Dioptrion' lantern for 250w/400w MA/H lamps is pictured on an old industrial site in Staffordshire in 2005. The lantern, which was in danger of falling from its corroded bracket, was acquired for the collection in February 2006 after consultation with the owners.

This GEC Z8421 'Dioptrion' lantern mounted on to a wonderfully ornate cast iron bracket was still in nightly use when photographed in the city of Worcester in July 2005. Sadly, this lantern has since been removed.

Here's a full-length view of the Dioptrion lantern on its ornate cast-iron column in Worcester in July 2005; the old enamel RAC parking sign is a gem too.

GECZ8430 lantern

Two GEC Z8430 250w mercury lanterns mounted on a twin-arm concrete bracket, stand in the gateway to a factory in Tipton, West Midlands.

GEC Z8432 Viatron lantern

This GEC Viatron Lantern for MA 250/400w lamps is thought to have come from Bradford in the early 1970's; it is seen at the Sandtoft Transport Centre, Sandtoft, South Yorkshire.

GEC Z8451/2 post top lantern

Photographed in Sheffield in June 2006 are the remains of this GEC Z8451/2 post top lantern for 4 x 2ft 40w MCF/U tubes. The lantern would have originally been fitted with a white opaque plastic cone. My thanks to Davy Warren for indentifying this lantern .

GEC Z8526 semi cut-off lantern

GEC Z8526 semi cut-off lantern for 250/400w MBF/SON lamps. This 400w SON lamped Z8526 is seen on a sunny day in Mansfield, Nottingham in June 2006.

GEC Z8536 'geared' semi cut-off lantern

This gear-in-shoe GEC Z8536 semi cut-off lantern with Diakon bowl, was pictured in Beeston, Nottinghamshire in July 2005. At this time it was fitted with a 400w SON lamp and was the last Z8536 of its type in the area. Note the SS5 photocell mounted on the side of the shoe.

GEC Z8596 lantern

1. This quaint rural setting, complete with a GPO red-telephone box, is in Brewood, Staffordshire. The diminutive GEC Z8596 80w MBF lantern mounted on its wood pole bracket seems totally inadequate to properly illuminate the T-junction it presides over.

2. A close-up of the same GEC Z8596 lantern with a badly discoloured plastic bowl. The method used to directly attach the out-reach bracket to the control box - with nothing more than a gaspipe elbow connector - would surely have been frowned upon by lighting engineers in years gone by, but seemed to be common practice in Staffordshire in the 1970's when this fitting was installed. It has to be said that the general condition of the telegraph pole and the alarming angle it's leaning at also look to be questionable?

3. Evening falls and this GEC Z8596 has blinked into life. Mounted on its old REVO column and swanneck bracket, the scene, complete with an ancient VHF TV ariel, is in Gedling Street, Mansfield. The photograph looks like it could have been taken in the 1970's if it wasn't for the more modern UHF TV ariel mounted above its elderly counterpart.

GEC Z8600-series of lanterns

This ageing moss-covered GEC Z8611/250T lantern for 250w SON-T lamps, is an example of the 8600-series lanterns once produced by GEC for use with SON and MBF lamps. The lantern pictured is one of several that are located on a Department for Transport weighbridge site on the A52 at Saxondale in Nottinghamshire; these lanterns are unusual in that they’re manually switched, but as can be seen, are rarely used. This model of lantern is now produced by WRTL as their MRL6 and is the only ex GEC side-entry lantern still in current production in the UK. Here's a list of the GEC Z8600-series family of lanterns:

Z8600 

Remote control-gear

for 150/250w SON-E or MBF lamps

Z8601

Remote control-gear

for 150/250w SON-T lamps

Z8610/150E

Integral control-gear

for 150w SON-E lamps

Z8610/250E

Integral control-gear

for 250w SON-E lamps

Z8610/250M

Integral control-gear

for 250w MBF lamps

Z8611/150T

Integral control-gear

for 150w SON-T lamps

Z8611/250T

Integral control-gear

for 250w SON-T lamps

GEC Z8896 lantern

This little remote-geared GEC Z8896 for 80w MBF lanterns is pictured in Lapley, Staffordshire, one late afternoon in March 2006. The direct feed from the overhead power lines to the lantern's control box can be clearly seen.

GEC Z9454 remote-geared lantern

 

1. GEC Z9454 lantern for 90w SOX lamps. This Nottingham City Council example is seen 'dayburning' in the city in July 2005.

 

 

2. Several sets of these Z9454's on twin-arm brackets were erected on the Sedgemoor Park housing estate at Lanesfield, Wolverhampton

in the early 1980's. Incredibly, none have seen any kind of ad-hoc replacement and the installation remains intact in late 2006.

 

GEC Z9464 gear-in-head lantern

 

 

Attached to a building that was once part of the erstwhile Electric Construction Company factory in Bushbury, Wolverhampton, this long disused GEC Z9464 gear-in-head lantern for 90w SOX lamps is seen one late September afternoon in 2006. No longer visible through its 'clouded' bowl is the white enamelled gear tray mounted above the lamp, on to which the control-gear is mounted, a feature which distinguishes the Z9464 from the Z9454.

 

GEC Z9480 lantern

 

 

Sheffield is a Mecca for GEC Z9480's - this GEC Z9480 side-entry lantern for 35w SOX lamps is photographed day-burning on the outskirts of the city in May 2006.

 

 

Another Z9480 day-burning in Sheffield; this one in the north of the city is mounted on a Concrete Utilities column with integral bracket.

 

GEC Z9481 lantern

 

 

This GEC Z9481 top-entry lantern with 35w SOX lamp was still in use when photographed in Bilston, Wolverhampton in 2005.

 

GEC Z9530 lantern

A Z9530 35w SOX remote-geared lantern photographed early one cold February morning in the village of Calverton, Nottinghamshire in 2006.

 

 

Another 35w SOX Z9530, this time in Mapperley, Nottingham in July 2005.

 

GEC Z9530M

 

 

GRP canopied GEC Z9530M remote-geared 35w SOX lantern on AC Ford wood pole bracket in Tankersley, South Yorkshire in June 2006.

 

GEC Z9536 lantern

 

 

A GEC Z9536 integral-geared 55w SOX lantern pictured in the village of Tithby, Nottinghamshire in June 2006.

GEC Z9538 lantern

GEC Z9538M GRP canopied 55w SOX 'geared' lantern, Toton, Nottinghamshire.

 

 

GEC Z9538M GRP 55w SOX lantern with Thorn Alpha 4 in background. Photo: Toton, Nottinghamshire, 2005.

 

GEC Z9545 cut off lantern

 

 

GEC Z9545 cut-off lantern for 90w SOX lanterns at Sedgely, West Midlands in August 2005.

 

GEC Z9554 lantern

 

 

GEC Z9554 135w SOX lantern with deep-bowl in Chapeltown, South Yorkshire.

 

 

GEC Z9554 135w SOX lantern with shallow-bowl in Ecclesfield, South Yorkshire.

 

 

GEC Z9554M 135w SOX lantern with GRP canopy in Mapperley, Nottingham, July 2005

 

 

Two Z9554's seen on a twin bracket in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire; one with a shallow bowl and the other with a deep bowl, but both needing insulation tape to hold their bowls in place.

 

GEC Z9564 lantern

 

GEC Z9564 remote-geared lantern for 180w SOX lamps is seen in Chapel Ash, Wolverhampton. This lantern was later removed as part of a lighting renewal scheme along Chapel Ash during 2005. A similar lantern is held in the collection.

 

 

Another Z9564 lantern with a less clouded bowl, but this one is photographed on the A61 at Tankersley in South Yorkshire. Note the photocell mounted on to the side of the canopy.

 

GEC Z9580-series lanterns

 

 

GEC Z9580 side-entry lantern without integral control-gear is for use with 35w SOX lamps. Picture taken at Shenstone, Staffordshire in September 2006

 

 

This GEC Z9583 lantern pictured in Barnsley, South Yorkshire is the 'geared' top-entry lantern designed for use with 35w SOX or 26w SOX-E lamps.

 

The Z9580-series of lanterns were offered in four different variants:

 

Z9580

Side-entry without control-gear

Z9581

Top-entry without control-gear

Z9582

Side-entry integral control-gear

Z9583

Top-entry integral control-gear

 

 Following the demise of GEC these lanterns continued to be sold, but as Siemens labelled products, until finally discontinued.

 

GEC ZD10517 post-top lantern

 

 

The ZD10517 is an enormous lantern measuring some 114cm (45") across its diameter, and weighs in at 30kg. It was designed for use with either 3 x 250w or 400w MBF lamps, or 3 x 250w, 310/360w, or 400w SON lamps. It was popular with many councils for main road lighting in town and city centres in the 60's and 70's; sadly, very few exist today.

 

 

This view gives some idea of the lantern's size; the picture was taken in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire.

 

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Copyright(c) 2005 Claire Pendrous. All rights reserved.

Please note that all pictures are by Claire Pendrous, or are part of the Claire Pendrous photographic collection unless otherwise stated; none of these images can be copied without obtaining prior permission.