Are there any sodium streetlights left in the uk?

Posted by VixenRoss@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 37 comments

We have Gas Lamps in London, but do we have sodium lights anywhere?

I remember the orange and greyscale glow of a sodium lamp whilst walking back from my nan’s in the 80s. I know the concrete posts used to do some serious damage if crashed into.

The LED lights we have now are much safer, and make visibility a lot easier for motorists. I wouldn’t want to see a return to sodium light.

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kylr01@reddit

I know this is old but my whole town and surrounding area still has sodium lights. I live in the midlands

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I'm also in the Midlands and would love to visit an area with exclusively sodium lighting - where I am (Telford) there are only a few left and as they're surrounded by LED lights you don't get the lovely monochromatic yellow effect

Would you mind sharing (roughly) where you are so I can come have a look? Understand if not!

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kylr01@reddit

You might not have heard of it... "Derbyshire"

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Palsternakka99@reddit

Bit of a trek so will have to wait until the weekend - thanks!

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VixenRoss@reddit (OP)

That sounds really nice to walk around at night! Nice warm orange glow.

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kylr01@reddit

It's a bad area though so don't really go out at night

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QWERTY_Cavalry@reddit

Quite a few left in Cardiff. Spotted a few tonight - at Radyr train station (and a lot of other stations on my route) and in Bute Park, in which there's an entire row along a pathway into Sofia Gardens. Glad to see them. LEDs have the capability to produce a similar colour temp to LPS & HPS, but many installed by local authorities seem to provide a horrible white light.

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Alternative_Club6468@reddit

I know early this year there were some left around the end of Cardiff Bay (past the spoons) and also at the train station there, but that's being renovated now so who knows.

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Swansboy@reddit

I hated orange lights, not bright enough, white led ones are. I also hate roads with no streetlights on.

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tiptoe_only@reddit

There's a few near where I live in South London. The council got rid of most of the remaining ones last year, but there are one or two survivors, mostly in alleyways rather than actual roads

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Fruitpicker15@reddit

I really dislike LED streetlights because I find it's harder to see and they only illuminate the immediate area with darkness in between. I also refuse to have LED bulbs on my car because I can't see as clearly as with halogen.

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Melonpan78@reddit

I'm another fellow nostalgic when it comes to sodium streetlights. As a little girl, I was obsessed with the ones in my neighbourhood. I always loved their pretty pinky-blue colour when they first switched on.

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LittleSadRufus@reddit

There's something magical about those childhood summers, the pink lights blinking on in the dusk and you know it's almost time to go home for a Sunday roast and Pie in the Sky on BBC1.

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MineMelodic5454@reddit

I much preferred the orange lights on the motorway

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AccomplishedRange671@reddit

Especially when it’s just stopped raining

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pencloud@reddit

As the world moves away from Sodium to LEDS, the view of the night-side of the Earth from space will have changed from having orange to white. If there are aliens watching, I wonder what they think...

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vctrmldrw@reddit

Any species that has developed sufficiently to be able to see our streetlights from wherever they are, will find it trivially easy to work out what happened.

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astromech_dj@reddit

We still have some at the western end of Ilkley. It surprised me. The ones in town are LED and also have sensors to turn on when there’s a pedestrian. They seem to go one on, one off, otherwise.

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Low-Cauliflower-5686@reddit

Are they still working, the sodium light's?

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astromech_dj@reddit

Yep.

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BugAdministrative683@reddit

Bright white LEDs are not good for nature. You can still produce LEDs with a more warmer, yellow, glow, and I hope councils and the National government realise this and move towards lower temperature colours in future.

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FoodEnvironmental368@reddit

I love them so much I bought an ex-council sodium streetlight off eBay. I paid £100 for it, and put it up in my back garden - it’s absolutely lovely to sit out on my patio of a late evening with a lovely orange glow lighting the area rather than a horrible, harsh 9m candela LED.

(Nerd alert - it’s a 35w Philips MI-26 🤓)

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Melonpan78@reddit

I love this!

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Smart-Resolution9724@reddit

But gotta be the classic low pressure sodium, pure 589 and 589.6 nm yellow, not that nasty high pressure sodium.

Astronomers loved it because it was a simple filter needed to remove the streetlight glow from starfields

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theModge@reddit

And that super narrow band is what gave them the monochrome look. It was a really distinctive thing, I too miss it, though I fear it's just nostalgia.

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Birdman_of_Upminster@reddit

Yes, I've still got some skyglow filters in my kit box although they are not much use, now. To be honest, , they were only of limited use, even back in the day, because cities have always had so many other sources of light.

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Broad-Raspberry1805@reddit

I’m convinced that LED lights have contributed to the devastation of the moth & insect population. I have no evidence and hope I’m wrong but suspect I’m right.

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Chorus23@reddit

There have been studies that show this see: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/25/led-streetlights-moth-england-eco-friendly-sodium-insect-decline

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fatveg@reddit

Theres one in the snicket behind my house. Council won't change it because the say they cant access it. Every now and again it goes to flicker mode, and they somehow come out and repair it.

I must say though, Im almost blind driving at night under LED, even walking I struggle to see compared to sodium.

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Erewash@reddit

The CRI must be nearly as bad as the sodium lamps.

I took the bins out this morning, before sunup, and I was peering at my neighbour's bin right under a light, and I couldn't tell whether it was red or black. It's like seeing in black and white.

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