Molnár József - Szilas Péter: Night Lights - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1993)
much criticised, but undeniably useful and therefore increasingly wide-spread novel lamp design. While traditional light bulbs had to be replaced four times a year, this lamp lasted almost ten times as long, and it was five times brighter, too. Its greatest merit, however, was the fact that with it a comprehensive and several year long programme of lamp replacement was started in Budapest. The 1970’s was a period characterised, due to large scale housing development, by a massive expansion of the network. Unfortunately the street lights used did not bring much colour into the drab world of boring housing estates. The same few designs recur wherever one goes in these places. There have been a few isolated attempts at introducing more delightful lighting-such as the installation in Obuda’s Fő tér of period lamps, which are better suited to the historical atmosphere of the neighbourhood-but that initiative has had little following so far. The development of the city’s inner districts was also shaped by the construction of new underground railway lines, as together with the “Metro” new traffic junctions, arcades and subways were built. Above ground level, modern, 11-18 metre tall lamps were employed, whereas the underpasses were usually lit by light tubes. A sensible way of avoiding the obstruction of pedestrian traffic on the pavements of narrow streets was the use of inexpensive wall brackets, or box-shaped lamp units suspended above the middle of the street. A characteristic feature of the eighties was the appearance of veritable jungles of lamp posts. Lamps supporting the power lines of trams and trolleys, as well as those carrying traffic signs, were erected right beside lamp standards. That was not only wasteful but unsightly, too. It took a long time before conflicting interests were finally reconciled and street and traffic lights, together with signs were placed on the same posts, for the first time along the route of tram no. 1. 42
