Posted by
17 July 2012
From The architects' blog
It all started with street signs. We have recently moved our office to a different part of Winchester, an old neighbourhood on the edge of the city centre, and I had started noticing all the old street signs. Most of them are simple, painted, cast-iron signs, white lettering on black.
And all of a sudden, for a day or two, street signs became a bit of an obsession. I walked all over the city looking at their different designs, the best being the few really old ones with slab-serif lettering. But of course the majority were modern signs, printed on heavy plastic and mounted on galvanised metal posts.
So it got me thinking about technology and progress. While there are things that are constantly being improved, like medicine or mobile phones, perhaps there are some things that are destined to get worse over time. And maybe street signs are just one of those things.
Then we had a drinks party in our office to celebrate the move, and I met one of the local councillors.
“Isn’t it amazing what a variety of street signs there are in Winchester?,” I said to him.
“I know,” he replied, “we should really do something about it.”
I laughed, but he then went on to tell me all about the programme of lamppost replacement that the county council has been planning for years and is just starting now. The idea is that the whole of Winchester — and eventually the whole of Hampshire — should have one design of lamppost only. So the next evening I walked home looking only at lampposts.
Okay, it’s true that there are a lot of different lampposts and not all of them are very well designed. But like the street signs the earlier they are in date, the nicer they are. And this isn’t anything about wanting to rewind the clock — I’m just talking purely about the elegance of design.
On the corner of one of the most historic streets in Winchester was a beautiful, old, cast-iron lamp standard with a moulded base and swan-neck top, stamped with Victorian lettering. And, ominously, there was an orange barrier around it and a sign saying: “Street lighting replacement programme”.
Well this last week has been pretty busy, and most of it spent in London. But today I was walking through the middle of town and came to have another look at that handsome lamppost. Perhaps you can imagine what had happened: it had gone, and in its place was what looked like a model of a Stealth bomber on the end of a long black pole.
I stood in shock. This is a city where the slightest change to a listed building will involve months of negotiation — as I have frequently experienced at the hands of conservation officers. And meanwhile a beautiful, old, cast-iron lamppost, perhaps the best example in the city, has now been lost forever. I wonder whether that really can be described as progress.
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Readers' comments (5)
You are right to highlight the plight of the historic lamppost - unless it is listed, it is likely to replaced, and not just in Hampshire but across the country. Another ridiculous PFI contract from the Government which takes no account of context, historic value, integrity or sustainability. We have been highlighting historic street furniture in the conservation area appraisals we undertake but this does not stop the County Councils ripping out and replacing lamp posts, signs and other elements of street furniture such as manhole covers. Winchester has some good examples of them also - have a look on your next walk home.
My dear chap, you are quite right; these lamposts are to the street what the cornice and crown moulding are to a drawing room. If one is to remove them one must be damn sure that the qality of the walls and ceiling is up to scratch - perfectly straight perhaps even textured. The double standards shown by the council is atrocious. Jolly good article.
The quality of Edwardian lamp-posts is staggering - beautiful and built to last. This is indeed a measure of how far we've fallen!
I quite agree, well observed and very well put, although reading this hasn't done anything for my 'Friday Feeling'...
Well, I think you have to be a bit pro-active as a citizen. Most places a awash with residents groups and conservation societies and I suspect that Winchester is no exception. If no such groups show an interest, County Council engineers won't think twice about removing them and selling then to China as scrap metal.
Where I live, pretty much all K6 phone boxes have been Grade II Listed and many have been given to/purchased by Parish Councils (when made redundant) for the very purpose of protecting them from BT either replacing them with a nice new aluminium (low maintenance) one or ripping them out altogether.
Functional lamp posts are a bit different, but no reason they can be listed.