Street & Car Park Lights

Street and car park lighting: what the job needs

Street and car park lights work harder than almost any fixture in the home. They run through wet winters and hot summers, switch on every night for years, and have to throw an even spread of light across a road, car park or yard without dark patches between poles. We hand-pick our range from specialist outdoor-lighting makers we work with directly, choosing fixtures rated for high ingress protection, strong impact resistance and long LED service life. For the wider exterior catalogue these sit within, see our outdoor lighting range; for site, warehouse and forecourt projects, see commercial lighting.

Pole-top street lanterns, car park floods and post-top lanterns

There are three formats here, and every one mounts on a pole, column or post rather than a wall. Pole-top street lanterns fix to the top of a street column and cast a wide, controlled beam down the road or across a car park, the classic street-light shape. Column-mounted area floods aim a broader, higher-output beam down across a car park, yard or forecourt from a raised pole or column, the workhorse of car park lighting. Post-top lanterns sit on a shorter amenity column to light footpaths, parks and parking areas at a lower level. Choose the street lantern for through-roads and access roads, the area flood for open car parks and yards, and the post-top lantern for paths and amenity areas.

LED street lights: output, optics and running cost

Older street and car park lighting used high-pressure sodium or metal-halide lamps that drew heavy power and faded over time. An LED street light gives the same or better light for a fraction of the running cost, holds its brightness across a long service life, and starts at full output the moment it switches on. The fixtures in this range cover a broad span of wattages and lumen outputs, with neutral-white colour temperatures around 4000K that render the road and surroundings clearly for drivers and pedestrians. Lower power suits residential roads and small car parks; higher power suits main roads, large car parks and yards.

Car park and parking-lot lighting: even cover and safety

Car park lighting, known in the US as parking lot lighting, is about even coverage and safety as much as raw brightness. A well-lit car park has no deep shadows between bays, helps drivers and pedestrians see each other, and supports any cameras on site. Mounting height and beam spread matter more than peak output: a higher mounting point with a wide beam covers more ground evenly than a bright fixture aimed at one spot. For perimeter and entrance security, pair these with security lights and floodlights, which add motion detection and tighter beam control where you need it.

Weatherproofing, mounting and where these sit outdoors

Every fixture in this range is built for permanent outdoor use, with sealed housings rated against rain, dust and, on the higher-rated models, water jets. Most carry an impact rating as well, which matters on poles and columns in public areas. Mounting is by pole, column or post: a spigot or bracket on top of a street column carries the lanterns and area floods, while a shorter amenity post carries the lower-level luminaires. These are column-mounted fittings rather than wall lights, so each product page lists the spigot size and recommended mounting height. For lower-level boundary, path and driveway marking rather than full road lighting, see our bollard and pathway lights range, which covers the shorter posts and ground-level fixtures that work alongside street lighting.

Browse related ranges

Street and car park lights sit inside our wider exterior range. For the full exterior catalogue, see outdoor lighting. For commercial and industrial sites, see commercial lighting. For security and motion-triggered cover, see security lights and floodlights. For lower path and boundary marking, see bollard and pathway lights.