Sloane Street in London has recently undergone its most significant refurbishment in almost 250 years, including the creation and installation of bespoke new, handcrafted lighting columns.
By Simon Thorp
Sloane Street, located within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, is well known for being one of the world’s leading luxury destinations.
It has also just undergone its most significant refurbishment in almost 250 years, since in fact it was originally commissioned by the first Earl Cadogan in the eighteenth century.
The new landscape scheme, commissioned by Cadogan and designed by architects John McAslan + Partners, includes significant pavement widening, beautiful new planters, elegant street furniture and a magnificent planting scheme by Andy Sturgeon.
This has created a 1km-long green boulevard spanning Knightsbridge to Sloane Square. Of most interest to ILP members, however, is that this scheme has included new lighting.
REINFORCING IDENTITY
The new lighting was needed to reinforce the street’s identity as a world-leading luxury destination, but also to provide something more in terms of illumination for the high numbers of pedestrians using the street day in and day out.
In technical terms, the new lighting (being, of course, LED) has delivered a significant energy saving compared to the existing metal halide lanterns. In addition, the detrimental impact of lighting at night on the street’s surroundings has been reduced by using a warmer colour temperature.
We at LAPD were commissioned to illuminate the landscaped areas, roads, and pavements. The project also involved developing a bespoke lighting column unique to Sloane Street, from preliminary sketch work to prototyped castings and a complete column mock-up.
The aesthetics of the column were, of course, something that needed careful consideration to ensure it was successful on a number of levels. It needed to complement the new landscape scheme, harmonise with the surrounding architecture, and evoke the luxury feel associated with Sloane Street, while at the same time of course enriching the experience for the local community.
NEED FOR A BESPOKE COLUMN
To begin with, we carried out extensive investigations into existing lighting column suppliers from all around the world. As well as having the right aesthetic, the column of course needed to be able to provide functional illumination to the street.
There is an eclectic mix of beautiful architecture across the street, ranging from recently completed works to the original buildings from the eighteenth century. Based on this, the original aspiration from the design team was to explore the options available for classic contemporary looking columns.
In addition to reviewing the product portfolios from an exhaustive range of leading manufacturers, we reviewed lighting from other cities across the world. Notable contemporary observations were made in Rome, Milan, Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin and Amsterdam. These all provided inspiration for what might be achieved.
Nevertheless, despite extensive research and many options investigated and considered, no existing column could be found with an aesthetic that met the aspirations of the scheme. The answer, therefore, needed to be a bespoke column that could be designed and manufactured to the highest of standards.
A number of original design concepts were mocked up, based on clean, contemporary forms, with the intention being for the lanterns to have a timeless aesthetic of clear glass encasing a warm light source. Other options explored included opal glass aesthetic, where a very subtle glow was held in the shade above the light source.
All these options had a common approach: to separate the illumination of the road and the pavement by using two dedicated lanterns and also to celebrate the horticultural history – the greenery and green spaces – of the street.
A key input to consider before truly defining the brief and form of the column was, naturally, the stakeholder consultation. As the consultation process progressed, more specific questions could be asked, in particular regarding the desired aesthetic of the lighting column.
Three styles were proposed – modern, traditional and classic contemporary. The traditional form received the most votes, amounting over half of the responses.
This therefore steered the design in a different direction, as we started to look at more traditional columns and considered designing the various embellishments located across the column in a unique way.
Cadogan were keen to respond to this aesthetic feedback from the stakeholder engagement and so delivered the design team with a clear brief. In particular, they provided specific guidance on where inspiration could be taken from to add the horticultural influence to the form.
ARTS AND CRAFTS INFLUENCE
Based on conversations with residents during the consultation process, Holy Trinity Church in Sloane Square was identified as a key driver of the aesthetics of the column embellishments; specifically, the strong influence of the Arts and Crafts movement on the interior of the church. The floral character of the ironwork, for example, and the arts and crafts motifs through the church have a strong resonance with the horticultural heritage of the street.
We reviewed potential manufacturers and decided to collaborate with one of the long-term suppliers to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Urbis Schréder.
This was based on their ability to conform with the functional requirements of the borough but also their proven record in producing bespoke columns. A specialist metalwork fabricator, Topp & Co, was engaged to collaborate with Urbis and manufacture the embellishments to the highest possible standards.
Key to Topp & Co’s appointment was the involvement of their ironwork designer, Bethan Griffiths from The Ironwork Studio, who has a strong portfolio in metal working.
Bethan’s role was significant: taking the design brief, along with the design development work completed to date, and from that producing various design options through (naturally) close collaboration with ourselves and John McAslan + Partners.
FLORAL EMBELLISMENTS
The floral embellishments we took from Holy Trinity were transformed into physical patterns for casting using the traditional skills of a pattern maker. This step was essential to preserve the artistic flow and organic detail of the design before moving to the casting stage.
Each pattern was reviewed to ensure the three-dimensional interpretation remained true to Bethan’s sketches, providing the final opportunity for adjustments before they were used to create the moulds. The aim was to produce a full-scale column for on-site review prior to authorising the full production run.
INSTALLATION AND DIMMING
Urbis integrated this new light source within the prototype lighting column along with all of the other elements already discussed and the result was that 40 columns were installed, plus eight pedestrian crossing columns with Belisha beacons, three columns with traffic lights atop, and two low-height (6m) columns with Belisha beacons for side street.
Installation took place amidst the complex network of underground ducting and utilities, meaning that modification was required to the original layout. Variations of the design were needed for pedestrian crossings, traffic light columns and side streets.
The minimum requirements for uniformity across the street have been exceeded and appropriate light levels used, ensuring nothing is over lit. During our discussions with the council, we also agreed on a lower lighting classification for the street, given the significant residential presence, so light levels were lowered by 30%.
Later at night, intelligence within the integrated LED drivers ensures that the light levels reduce at midnight as the traffic flow reduces; this further reduces the ecological impact of the new lighting as well as of course lowering energy consumption. The lanterns then brighten again at 5am as the morning as traffic increases.
In summary, the new street lighting on Sloane Street now has a much more timeless feel. It blends with the surrounding buildings and supports the high-quality finishes across the street. The columns, I am pleased to say, have also been very well received.
The new column was born from the need to achieve an aesthetic that didn’t exist anywhere else at the time. Despite searching across the lighting industry and across the world’s cities nothing aligned with the aspirations of Cadogan and the design team.
Innovation and creativity were therefore needed to create a completely new column that will remain unique and special to the identity of Cadogan and the vicinity of Sloane Street for, we hope, decades to come.
Simon Thorp MA, MEng, MILP is director of LAPD Consultants
This is an abridged version of the article that appears in the January edition of Lighting Journal. To read the full article, simply click on the page-turner to your right.
Image: one of the new Sloane Street columns, courtesy of Urbis Schréder
