Highway "X" street lighting column & bracket : by : Concrete Utilities Ltd.: in : Design, Number 89 : May 1956 : the Council for Industrial Design : London : 1956
In the 1950s, as street lighting increased in the UK both to make up for increased traffic and to resolve wartime and post-war neglect of installations, the design quality of the columns and brackets used came under increased scruitiny from both unofficial and official bodies. Organisations from local ratepayers, to the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, the Civic Trust and the Royal Commission for Fine Arts started to vocoferously campaign about older and seemingly more 'refined' columns being replaced by what were seen as overbearing or, for many concrete columns, simply badly designed and their impact on the streetscape. Ian Nairn, the architectural writer and critic, particularly took aim at the subject in his column and book on urban design "Outrage".
Concrete Utilities, of Ware in Hertfordshire, had begun production of concrete columns in the early 1930s when the technology of spinning concrete moulds for such products, was refined. Concrete was seen as 'modern' and maintenance free (unlike painted steel columns) and being a more 'plastic' material it could be moulded into some quite exotic patterns; see CU's Avenue 4D 'Bird bracket' for one example. In postwar years, when simple lines became more fashionable and proved less problematic themselves to failure due to corrosion, CU produced this, the Avenue X streamlined column and bracket and it would become one of the Council of Industrial Design's 'preferred' range that brought it within scope for central Government grants for new installations. The column is seen here with a side entry Phosware SO/140 sodium lantern, looking neater that say Edinburgh's top entry ones, and such installations, and similar, became widespread across the UK.
What is unusual is to see a designer credited; this is by C.A. Marques and this sort of information helps fills a gap in the story of street furniture and industrial design. The Avenue X, like many other such models, did in later life suffer from tension and spalling failure around the column/bracket sprocket joint and many were later 'sleeved' with simple metal brackets that slid over the top of the column profile.
Highway "X" street lighting column & bracket : by : Concrete Utilities Ltd.: in : Design, Number 89 : May 1956 : the Council for Industrial Design : London : 1956
In the 1950s, as street lighting increased in the UK both to make up for increased traffic and to resolve wartime and post-war neglect of installations, the design quality of the columns and brackets used came under increased scruitiny from both unofficial and official bodies. Organisations from local ratepayers, to the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, the Civic Trust and the Royal Commission for Fine Arts started to vocoferously campaign about older and seemingly more 'refined' columns being replaced by what were seen as overbearing or, for many concrete columns, simply badly designed and their impact on the streetscape. Ian Nairn, the architectural writer and critic, particularly took aim at the subject in his column and book on urban design "Outrage".
Concrete Utilities, of Ware in Hertfordshire, had begun production of concrete columns in the early 1930s when the technology of spinning concrete moulds for such products, was refined. Concrete was seen as 'modern' and maintenance free (unlike painted steel columns) and being a more 'plastic' material it could be moulded into some quite exotic patterns; see CU's Avenue 4D 'Bird bracket' for one example. In postwar years, when simple lines became more fashionable and proved less problematic themselves to failure due to corrosion, CU produced this, the Avenue X streamlined column and bracket and it would become one of the Council of Industrial Design's 'preferred' range that brought it within scope for central Government grants for new installations. The column is seen here with a side entry Phosware SO/140 sodium lantern, looking neater that say Edinburgh's top entry ones, and such installations, and similar, became widespread across the UK.
What is unusual is to see a designer credited; this is by C.A. Marques and this sort of information helps fills a gap in the story of street furniture and industrial design. The Avenue X, like many other such models, did in later life suffer from tension and spalling failure around the column/bracket sprocket joint and many were later 'sleeved' with simple metal brackets that slid over the top of the column profile.