GEC Z8896 Lantern Installations

The GEC Z8896 is a small, oval-shaped 80W/125W MBF-U lantern dating back to the 1960s-70s. Due to it's small size, there was no space for a gear, so the gear would always be situated in a column, or a wall box. The bowl is made from poly-carbonate, with nearly all of them becoming brittle and yellowed after decades of exposure the heat from the MBF-U lamp.

Birmingham

This survivor is located on a small private car park outside of Spaces - Birmingham, Crossway.

It runs an 80W MBF/U lamp, being mounted on an original cast-iron column.

Another surviving GEC Z8896, photographed in mid-December 2024 along Peel Street. It was previously accessible, but the area has since been fenced off due to fly-tippers.

The column has some considerable lean to it.

Lichfield

This next image was taken of a GEC Z8896 in Lichfield, at the end of Meadowbrook Road on a car park. It would have run MBF during it's many years of service, but it has since been replaced by newer installations of LED lanterns and floods- however, it is still present and has not been removed. Furthermore, it probably won't be removed any time soon, as it has remained for years after being made obsolete. Also remaining is a post-top Thorn Precinct.

Tamworth

This GEC Z8896 is truly a survivor. Its lamp (presumably mercury) has long since blown or the lamppost has been disconnected. But it still stands there, watching silently the bustle of the industrial estate, day after day. I reckon it'll be doing so for a while longer. It's the last concrete column on the estate after the Revo Diadem collapsed.

The concrete column has started to fracture at the joint of the arm. Maybe this spells the beginning of the end for this lamppost, and it's GEC Z8896. It is highly likely that this lantern is the original one fitted to this column.

More GEC Z8896s exist in Amington, Tamworth. They run 80W MBF and are all wall-mounted, This one has it's gear box door missing, allowing us to see inside. It is located on Hornbeam and it even still works!

The same lantern at night.

The following images of the same installation were provided to me by AgentHalogen_87. With these excellent close-ups, the 80W MBFU lamp can be appreciated in all it's glory!

The others had slowly dwindled away over the past few decades, owing to replacement lanterns (mostly WRTL 2600s) but some (about 5) still remained at the time of photographing. They were located on Abelia, but were all removed in late 2024. A special thanks to AgentHalogen_87 for making me aware of these GEC Z8896s.

Lantern T25 is seen below:

Lantern T22 was photographed next:

Lantern T28:

Lantern T31 This one has had it's hinge damaged, now needing a cable-tie to keep the bowl up!

Each lantern has a two-part photocell installed towards the front of the lantern's canopy.

I returned on the warm spring night of 05/05/2024 to see them in action. Lantern T31 was pictured first. The zip-tie is clearly visible, owing to the damaged hinge. A plethora of dead bugs are laying in the bowl, having been lured in by the warmth of the lamp.

Lantern 12 was my next stop, skipping lantern T28 as it was not working.

There was only two more examples of working Z8896s, which were difficult to photograph due to obstructions.

These lanterns were replaced in November 2024. It was believed that the last example of a Tamworth Z8896 was the one located on Hornbeam, but I was in for a shock! Walking back from a doctors appointment one wintery afternoon, I saw the distinctive green glow of a mercury lamp in the distance. The combined darkness and lack of leaves on the bushes were what allowed me to spot these, so I made my way around to discover not one, not two but three mercury vapour lanterns!

The first example is probably one of the last concrete columns in Tamworth with it's original side-entry lantern. This Z8896 features an acrylic bowl, which looks to have gathered the remains of a wasps nest inside.

The second Z8896 looks to have been re-used from the old concrete column. It is fitted to a newer Concrete Utilities steel column.

This lantern's bowl is made from polycarbonate, which could mean the lantern is younger than it's acrylic-counterpart, or that a new bowl was fitted at some point in the past.

More concretes exist here which would have originally also had GEC Z8896s on.

I re-visited these installations on a chilly day.

The final mercury vapour lantern here is a Simplex Solumbra.