Dublin Street Lighting

[Plug]

The lighting on the bridges generally is pretty ropey, its a bit of a bug-bear of mine as I'd love to get a crack at lighting one properly, the're fabulous structures and could look so good if a bit of thought and artistry was put into them.

Admittedly the colour temperature thing could be seen as picky, but O'connel bridge is one of the citys landmarks and I thing desrves that extra care and attention, to my mind it just makes it look shoddy.

[GrahamH]

I couldn't agree more about colour temperature as you've raised before - not a nit-picky issue in the slightest!
Not that the tacky green installed in the first place is worthy of replicating with replacement bulbs
The whole quay lighting scheme needs to be reviewed, or rather one needs to be put in place!
An integrated scheme with regular posts along the entire length of the Liffey from Heuston to the Custom House, as well as proper sustainable bridge lighting, not a gimmicky short-term scheme ought to be put in place.

But the big problem with colour temperature is with the lighting of major buildings such as lighting one half in nasty orange sodium and the other in white, and other similar ridiculous practices.
This is basic basic stuff.

[Lotts]

There's examples of a lot of the old lamps in Archbishop Ryan Park (Merrion Square). They don't seem to be in any particular order, nor is there any description given. Nice all the same though.

[PVC King]

This image highlights the relationship between the scale of the posts and the buildings on the Southside of Fitzwilliam square. The traffic signs are not welcome.

[GrahamH]

Yes those flippin signs are tacked onto so many of these posts. If the will was there, plain black poles hosting the signs would simply disappear into the background if used.

Look at that ghastly 80s brick chimney between the two houses in the background - shiny red brick in place of brown stock

[hutton]

Graham,

Its always a pleasure to read this thread - particularly with all of the period photos which you uploaded; I note that the thread title appropriatey has a lit bulb as the accompanying icon

However I don't know if I agree with your last comment as to "those flippin signs are tacked onto so many of these posts"; it would seem to me that this is probably the better practice than the more frequent one-pole-per-sign/ light/ camera that is done all around Dublin.

Take the junction on the south side of O'Donovan Rossa Bridge, opposite the Four Courts; between only the four corners of the junction, there are approx 18 poles holding lights and signs, and of course no attempt at consolidation. Poles stand side by side with all most military dignity and precision, each one bearing a singular sign or item as if it were their duty......And you have to ask yourself; "are the poles invading, or do they just multiply at night?"

[GrahamH]

There's a mystery pole-popper-inner operating in the city for sure anyway...

I totally agree Hutton about pole mania, but in the case of the Squares, the majority of parking tends to take place around the parks in the centre. Black poles holding these signs would have a negligible impact in front tof the railings and morass of hedging & trees etc.
I dislike seeing those signs adorn the historic silver posts in the Georgian areas - you wouldn't be allowed attach signs to the houses' railings - these are after all conservation areas. And I don't mean that in a stuffy official way, rather these areas are some of the most enchanting places in Europe to visit, and a distinction should be made where possible between modern additions and the historic stock.

But to apply your good point, if one were to use poles along say Upper Mount St, one can only imagine the view of them accumulating into the distance. Compromises have to be made in places, but a good guide I think is to use black poles along the perimeters of all the parks, while use the lampposts along the terraced sides.


Here's one of two strange posts outside the Rubrics in Trinity that I'm sure everyone has wondered about
Anyone know anything about them, that is their rather starnge 'attending feature'?!

[JPD]

I like the idea of the black poles around the Squares I think that the railings would kill most of the effect and give a good contrast to the signs making them clearer to drivers.

[garethace]

I like the idea of the black poles around the Squares I think that the railings would kill most of the effect and give a good contrast to the signs making them clearer to drivers.

You will find an unusual point of view about signage, on this link:

http://www.archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?t=3896&page=2&pp=25

What are all of the signs stuck in the ground, doing on Grafton St., anyhow?

http://www.archiseek.com/content/attachment.php?attachmentid=663

Street Lighting from Belgium pic attached. To be honest, when you think about 'street lighting' you don't always have to imagine this thing stuck on the top of a very large pole - but that is the cliche that most of us have stuck in our heads unfortunately.

http://www.archiseek.com/content/attachment.php?attachmentid=876

http://www.archiseek.com/content/attachment.php?attachmentid=879

http://www.archiseek.com/content/attachment.php?attachmentid=880

If the series 'Behind the Hall Door' is available on DVD, it would be about as good a starting point as any for the design of street lighting, as part of the urban space. In lighting interiors, the 'Behind the Hall Door' teams, went to pains in several of their episodes, to demonstrate how diverse lighting actually is, and what you can do with it, how many different things, lighting can actually be. I mean, this picture demostrates the approach where you stick everything on some kind of cantilevered pole object, and most of the time, it just contributes to dead space, in urban areas, which are already too conjested and unattractive.

http://www.archiseek.com/content/attachment.php?attachmentid=662

Why do you need those large protection bollards on Grafton St., anyhow? Here is just another simple example where lighting is used to turn a potentially disasterous utility kind of truck ramp, into an attractive looking piece of urban furniture.

http://www.archiseek.com/content/attachment.php?attachmentid=881

Even if lighting from on top of a pole, is a good way to provide basic levels of illumination to an urban space, there is still no need to go overboard on the design and embellishment of those poles. I think that some urban spaces here in Dublin could benefit from less 'flowerly' and visual loud lighting poles. That is why I tend to like the ones in the Belgian town picture above.

Brian O' Hanlon.

[GrahamH]

Yes those Belgian posts are magnificent - striking pieces of street furniture. High quality design, materials and light emitted.

On a related issue, just looking at the images from London over the past few days, it's finally struck me as to what gives London its established mature appearance. I could never pinpoint it exactly till now, obviously aside from its architecture - it is the street furniture. Every single lamppost, sign pole, traffic signal, railing and bollard is painted black - every last one in the city centre. It is extraordinary, not so much that everything is black as a colour, but the fact that care and attention, not to mention plain hard cash, is put into making the city's furniture look well.

When one considers the galvanised rubbish that litters our capital, one can only laugh at the idea of authorities here being obliged to do the same. At least things are gradually improving with traffic signal posts in the centre being replaced with the brushed steel finish, even if they are a drop in the ocean.

As for the bollards on Grafton St you mention Brian, if you are ever there in the early morning you will see how they come into effect with pedestrians using the sides of the street, while vehicular traffic takes over the centre - till 10.30

[GrahamH]

Often wondered about this post below at the top of Parnell Square - there's another what I think is an identical post at the junction outside the Bleeding Horse pub and Camden Court Hotel.

Anyone know if they're original - being somewhat American in design, with vague influences of Art Nouveau...

[StephenC]

They're not originals they only went in a few years back when the CC had a fit of installing 'heritage' lighting on medians.. Nice though. Pity there's only a couple of them.

[GrahamH]

Thanks Stephen.
The bases seemed a bit flimsy all right - trademark replica

Nice all the same.

[Plug]

OK, so technically it's not a street, but at least we managed to avoid putting lights on a stick on a stick, and with a mixture of optics managed to highlight the building as well as wash the cportyard (tho the eagle eyed amongst you will notice from the "blob" of light in the bottom left that "someone" managed to put the wrong optical arrangement in one of the fittings ! (this has since been rectified)

[PVC King]

That is an interesting image plug, would you consider having a look at the Liffey bridges thread in the polls section?




This image of the double lamp standard at Fenian St is interesting, I find it rare to find an aspect similar to this one with the post so well framed by the building behind.

[JPD]

What a place to put bike stands

[Eric Woods]

Hello everyone. Well i just came across this website by mistake and wow its blown me away. Just to let you know who I am. Myself and my dad, David are responsible for alot of the lighting fixtures you are chatting about on your message board. Our jobs include all the gas lanterns in the phoenix park, parkgate entrance, grafton street, henry street, talbot street, dublin castle, city hall, o connell bridge, and many other places around the city. We build all our lanterns by hand and its mainly divided between copper and brass lanterns. The silver lanterns you refer to are also ours! not all of them, but we do manufacture them alot for ireland and the uk. If anyone would like to know anything about our lanterns or pictures i would be delighted. I have thousands of pictures of our work around Ireland. We have just completed manufacturing lanterns for all our garda stations. Ok nice to see all your posts on the board.

Regards
Eric

[GrahamH]

Hi Eric - do you design them too?

[Eric Woods]

Yeah grahm we sure do. The lanterns pictured in grafton street our our design along with the garda lanterns and the castle lanterns which can be seen in the courtyard of Dublin castle.

[GrahamH]

So you've been doing it for some time then I presume considering some of those mentioned date from the late 80s?
Do you work for DCC Public Lighting Division or are you contracted out can I ask?

I'm a big fan of your Castle lanterns - these I presume are the copper lamps mounted on older standards in the Upper Yard?
What do you think about constantly replicating Dublin's trademark silver column in so many places round the city?
(sorry about the twenty questions )

[Plug]

Thanks Thormond, there's a "polls" section ???

sorry, found it.

[Morlan]

I love this lamp thread.

When I was in Barcelona there a few weeks ago some of Gaudi's hanging street lamps reminded me of the early 20th century lamps in Dublin.

This one I snapped close to Gaudi's La Pedrera.






The architecture in Barcelona would make you sick. Notice its football like globe This is a shot of a 3 globe lamp although, the globes are identical city-wide.

I totally agree with you, Graham, about the level of detail in the Micheal Collins film. They certainly made an effort.

[GrahamH]

Lovely stuff there. Excuse the ignorance, but did Gaudi design the furniture of his streets too?!
It looks fabulous.

I don't get what the mesh is for either on those Barcelona posts, or on the 1892 Dublin ones below - it hardly protects them from anything does it?



During the BBC Proms, aside from the irritating practice that it was, the video footage played over some of the pieces showed London in the 1890s with almost exactly the same posts as those above.
You see them in archive footage from all over Europe from the time.

[Morlan]

Yes. After he graduated from college his first commission was to design and build the street lamps you see in Barcelona today. It's possible that it's some sort of shatter proofing wire.. just a thought.

[Devin]

Some great lamps in Barcelona....here's another just for pig (cast) iron: