Three lamp posts lighting pedestrian refuges on the Crown Roundabout

Summary

Cast iron street lamp posts originally designed for electricity, repositioned mid-C20 after the creation of the roundabout.

Reasons for Designation

The 1899 design lamp posts lighting the pedestrian refuges around the Crown Roundabout are listed for the following principal reasons:
* Date: as early examples of lamp posts designed for electricity, the design being specific to Harrogate, dating from 1899, there being less than around a dozen of this design to survive in the town;
* Design: for the interest of their elaborate decorative treatment, the design being a good example of Victorian mass-produced yet decorative street furniture, a relatively early design intended for electricity.

History

The Crown Roundabout is shown on the 1889-90 1:500 town plan as a complex cross roads with a ‘lamp’ lighting its centre and a single ‘LP’ positioned on each of the four approach roads where each divides into three to provide direct connections with the other approach roads. None of these five street lamps are in positions still occupied by street lamps. The junction was reconfigured into a roundabout sometime between 1932 and 1960.

Harrogate’s first electric powered street lamps were installed in 1899, just two years after electricity first became available in the town. The design of these lamp posts is thought to have been based on gas lamp posts installed in Victoria Avenue in the 1860s by the Victoria Park Company, being much taller than those installed by the Harrogate Gas Company from 1848 onwards. Three examples of this type of lamp post are placed on the pedestrian refuges at the junction with the roundabout for Montpellier Road, Royal Parade and Cold Bath Road, these lamp posts being shown in position in a photograph of circa 1960. The lamp post on the refuge at the bottom of Montpellier Hill is a modern steel post that is not of special interest and not included in the listing. The four 1848 design lamp posts set around the central island of the roundabout were installed in the late C20 and are also not included in the listing.

Details

Three 1899 design lamp posts originally designed for electricity, repositioned in the mid-C20 and now with late C20 lanterns.

LAYOUT: placed on the pedestrian refuges at the junction with the roundabout for Montpellier Road, Royal Parade and Cold Bath Road.

FORM: tall, cast iron posts with a cylindrical base including an access door featuring the Harrogate coat of arms. Above this there is a series of bands leading to a beaded ring from which rises a pair of acanthus leaves which clasp the flared bottom of the post. After four further bands, including a flange and a crown of palm leaves, the post is a plain circular column until it reaches a square block which supports the ball-ended ladder supports. The top of the post is bell-ended, carrying further embossed decoration, with a modern lantern with decorative detailing set above.

STREET SETTING: a roundabout set with trees and surrounded by mainly C19 commercial buildings, of which four are listed: The Crown Hotel, which dominates one side of the junction; 4 Royal Parade, an Edwardian chemist’s shop; the White Hart Hotel; and the White cottage, an octagonal pavilion originally built as a ticket office.

Sources

Websites
1924 photograph of a similar lamp post in Harrogate, accessed 14/6/16 from http://www.francisfrith.com/harrogate/harrogate-royal-hotel-1924_75644

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