Does anyone else think that the street lights look untidy in some parts of Manchester City Centre? Some areas would look a lot better if the street lights were consistent. It seems to me that some of the lights have been there since the 60s and 70s and do not look right next to the more modern lights. Big cities in other countries seem to be more consistent with their street lights and when all the street lights on a road are the same it looks a lot more impressive. With all these new world class high rise developments in Manchester, it's important for the streets to look tidy at ground level.

I wish we'd do away with lamp posts and have some form of lighting coming from the buildings instead. Damn ugly street furniture and it pisses me off how easily they can ruin a picture.

I like some street lights. The ones on that street going from Exchange Square to St Annes square are good.

I never notice them till I end up walking into them. I cant even remember seeing one today thats how normal they seem to me. New York is getting some cool lamp posts. We should do what they did, a design competition to see who comes up with the best design.

That's why I prefur to take photos above ground level. I think consistent antique lights throughout Manchester's central area would be good, or perhaps different styles representing the different areas?

Liverpool's worse than Manchester for shoddy lamp standards.

The lack of uniformity on many roads is terrible, ie, the road would have an original installation of concrete street lamps from the '60s. Some have since been replaced with modern steel columns, others have retrofitted lanterns on them which are sometimes different again from both the original and replacement lanterns.

Not enough attention is given to streetfurniture in the UK. You've got to remember that in a large city, lamposts, trafficlights, litterbins etc are everywhere and whether they are smart or shoddy can set the standard of the area.

Street lighting in Manchester has been PFI'd out to Amey Hynd and there is an on-going process of street lamp replacement on a worst first basis. I have to say that with street furniture I prefer simple columns/benches etc. Too many schemes to brighten up town centres in the UK end up looking a dog's breakfast with a mish mash of over ornate lamp standards over designed block paving, too many benches, bins etc.

Leeds street lighting is pretty good. But they deserve it cos they have an entire website dedicated to the history of streetlamps in Leeds :D

To be fair, I find the street furniture to be shit in Leeds but it's not as bad as in Manc. Perfect example? B Of The Bang. It's impossible to get a great street level photo of the bloody thing.

To be fair, I find the street furniture to be shit in Leeds but it's not as bad as in Manc. Perfect example? B Of The Bang. It's impossible to get a great street level photo of the bloody thing.

Well take a pair of stilts and stop moaning :laugh:

Go latin, Spanish and Latin American cities have the best lamposts anywhere.
Also bolting lamps to buildings is an excellent idea.

Modern, cheap lamp action ends up looking rank.
Have you seen the one's in Stockport?
Probably looked okayish a few years back for 3 months.
The're now full of dead moths and look extremely dated.
I do quite like the New Cathedral Street lights mind.
Hopefully they have been built to last.

Simple 'bulbage' on our bridges over the Irwell would look great (a la thames lighting).
Look great on photeys for visiting dignatories to boot.

Tameside's lights and plant pots in the town centre are quite good. They're colour-coded based on what town you're in too and they have the name of the town built into their designs.

I like the lamposts on Liverpool Road - the old style latern type. I also think that all the light bulbs should be changed from orange to white.
On lighting related note - there are alot of bridges in Manchester and at the entrance to the city on many major roads i.e. the two bridges next to the MEN, the two bridges on Water Street - these should be given a real good scrub down and a lick of paint then they should install uplighters at night-time. But different colours like blues and greens. They could be a good feature.

Northy's got the right idea. They wouldn't have to be fancy, just bog standard ones like on the barge at Canal Street. They could line the Irwell. It'd be purdy and give us Mancs one more thing to do at night - sexy moonlit walks by the canal.

IT does worry me however just how close developers build to the river. With all the buildings going up down that way, it's making the area seem to overpowering. If the buildings were set back a bit more like the Lowry hotel, it'd be a much better experience. I'd imagine the apartments with river view would go for more too, seeing as they'd have a more open area to look out from on their balconies. We should treat it like the Parisians treat the sein (I've probably got the name of the river wrong, my memory is hazy, I was there a long time ago) and build slightly aback from the river so the public actually have a nice open area to walk down.

I dunno. It just bugs me how the river is only an asset to the people living in the flats and not to the general public who fancy a nice walk down the river.

Salford Quays lampost:
http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/206ImperialPoint_pic13.jpg

I hate those mock victorian lamposts,espiecally in cities.This is the 21st century and we should be designing street furniture to to more contempary and original. they are ok in parts of small historic cities like chester.

I like some street lights. The ones on that street going from Exchange Square to St Annes square are good.
Agree. this is the type of style we should be using in modern city centres not those crap fake victorian ones that are painted black with bits of gold on .They are bloody everywhere in our cloned town centres...can't believe I am talking about lamposts on an internet forum :)

I agree that all the bulbs should be changed from orange to white in the city centre. White light looks better and provides a better atmosphere. We are one of the few countries in the world to use orange colour lights and they should all go, although they have been gradually getting rid of them over the past few years.

the orange lights (sodium neon) were great in fog, when manchester used to get lots of fog.... the sodium lights (pink/rose) do not produce a lot of light pollution and are cheaper to run, the mercury vapour (white lights) are bright, but produce more light pollution, I know in north america, they are just switching or have switched to the sodium lights. I remember in Toronto, they were the last city to use incandescent street lighting! they convertied them to mercury vapour, but the suburbs switched from mercury to sodium.

I also think many of the pavements/sidewalks in the CBD are terrible and old. They need desperately replacing with new brick pavers/blocks.

There seems to be about 50 different styles of paving in the city - why don't they just pick one and do it all the same? It makes me laugh when the Council have laid a new or newish load flagging and when they get cracked or a small amount of them need digging up, they then replace it with a limp of tarmac - looks a complete mess!

Northy's got the right idea. They wouldn't have to be fancy, just bog standard ones like on the barge at Canal Street. They could line the Irwell. It'd be purdy and give us Mancs one more thing to do at night - sexy moonlit walks by the canal.

Well ask DGN and ye shall get!
Can't find the article on me wapper but the MEN story from today runs that Canal Street Treeage has been lit up with thousands of blue xmas tree lights (gag in here somewhere). Cost £20,000 which really is only a few bob in the scheme of things.
Mentions Canal Street extensions are under discussion.