Historic boxes which helped light up Manchester to be preserved for the nation
06.04.2022 - 16:03
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
They are relics from a pioneering age. Now three cast iron electricity junction boxes in Manchester dating from the early 1900s are to be preserved for the nation.
They are all within 100 yards of each other in the Castlefield area, where scenes for the final series of TV's Peaky Blinders, including a deadly shoot out, were filmed. Of ornate design, they have been given Grade II listed status by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport after lobbying by Historic England.
Manufactured by Hardy and Padmore of Worcester for Manchester City Council, they are considered rare survivors from the first age of electricity. The decorative styling by a world-renowned company reflects the romance and respect which were given to such infrastructure in the early years of the last century.
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The boxes’ design features a low pyramidal cap, castellated edges and a moulded cornice, supported at each corner by an inward-scrolled corbel. Each box includes a plaque featuring the crest of the City of Manchester.
Consumer electricity arrived in Manchester in 1893 and by 1920 the number of consumers was around 20,000. Distribution and supply infrastructure were needed to transfer current from where it was generated to its point of use.
The junction box, or feeder pillar, was designed to control the electrical supply to a number of buildings in the surrounding area. On an Ordnance Survey map of 1948, 50 such feeder pillars are shown, mostly on major streets.
The cabinets date from the period of "the battle of the currents", when in the United States of America, giants of the early days of electricity including Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse fought for the supremacy of their respective ideas on how best