GEC Z5640 Lantern Installations

GEC's Z5640 was an icon of street lighting, and started production in 1949, to be used on side roads. The lanterns featured a Perspex or polycarbonate cone which sealed the lantern. These lanterns could never carry a gear inside, so any gear would have needed to be housed externally - GLS examples did not need such an arrangement. The catalogue numbers for the Z5640 were as follows: Z5640 for 60W-200W bayonet cap GLS, Z5641 for 80W-125W MB/U, Z5642 for 60W-200W Edison screwcap GLS, or Z5646 for 45W SOI or 35W SOX.

Chester

With thanks to the security guard for allowing me to take photos of these lanterns, as well as providing some information on them and other fittings located here. Along with some GEC Z5670s, DW Windsor Yorks and Phosco P111s (and a solitary P108A) several GEC Z5640s light the areas of Castle Square, Chester. They were likely GLS originally. This warped example is located on a building behind Chester Castle. The warping is likely due to the lantern having once been fitted with too-powerful of a lamp. It appears a small section of concrete has had to be removed to allow the building and lantern to coexist.

This example is situated on a decorative wall bracket, fixed to Crown Court. Notice the bracket is attached to the lantern on the exterior of the spigot, rather than the interior. From this angle, and against the backlight of the sky, a small elliptical lamp can be sighted sitting within an orbiting refractor.

The same lantern is pictured from another angle below. The larger finial on these would date them to after 1951.

Another example attached to the same building allowed what may be a domestic LED lamp to be seen glowing.

The following Z5640s are all wall-mounted on Colvin House. Seen here is yet another Z5640 with a polycarbonate refractor - this one considerably less warped than the one on the lantern mounted directly opposite!

The next three are tasked with lighting the entrance to the car park. Having been shielded by the building and some overhead trees, the lanterns' covers remain remarkably clear!

This one was once painted entirely black, but presumably, decades of weathering since the paint was applied has caused the silvery metalwork to become exposed on much of the canopy and finial. I dont think the black colour was original to the lantern, however.

Previously, two Z5640s running domestic compact fluorescent lamps were situated either side of the statue in the centre of the square. I was informed that these were replaced mere weeks before I had visited, as someone had smashed both bowls beyond repair, and with GEC having gone out of business decades ago, the owners couldn't find bowls required to fix the lanterns. I wish I'd have visited a bit sooner, so I could have offered to house the lanterns in my collection!