The Covent Garden Lighting Partnership — Seven Dials Covent Garden Study

The Trust brought together a pioneering lighting partnership with Camden Council, Westminster City Council, English Heritage (now Historic England), Shaftesbury plc and the Mercers’ Company, with assistance from the Corporation of London. After reviewing market offers, a decision was made to design and have manufactured a bespoke façade lantern and bracket. Trustee Paul Draper, a leading architectural artist, designed the Covent Garden Lantern® and bracket and gifted them to the Trust.

The Trust’s Covent Garden Lantern® is now in use from south of Shaftesbury Avenue down to Long Acre including Mercers’ Walk and has reduced both carbon emissions and energy needs. Further refinements arising from advances in LED lamps have been incorporated. The scheme has been extended to include Floral Street, Neal Street, Tower Street and West Street.

The full story of this unusual partnership is on the Trust’s website.

The Covent Garden Lantern® should continue as the norm for the area and where possible be used elsewhere in Covent Garden and beyond.

Officers from Camden, the Corporation of London, English Heritage, Westminster City Council with Shaftesbury plc and the Seven Dials Trust.

In March 2017 the Trust and Westminster City Council organised a test of three LED units for a wide range of stakeholders. The tests were carried out in Shelton Street where there is minimal interference from other light sources such as shops.

Paul Draper surveyed nearby 18^th century Windsor style lanterns, achieving the final Covent Garden Lantern® after various prototypes and at a fraction of usual R&D costs.

Lighting engineers from Camden, Westminster and the Corporation of London listed every fault they had ever encountered so these could be designed out, creating a long-life, sustainable product.

The Covent Garden Lantern® combines current technology with ‘sugar bowl’ diffraction which greatly reduces glare, carbon emissions and energy requirements and also recreates an authentic Victorian ‘Windsor’ style, elegant in the day and effective at night. The façade-mounted lanterns create the egg-shaped pool of light which best lights both footways and carriageways.

Covent Garden wall mounted lantern — The final version installed. Where needed, a 76% glare resistant plastic film was applied to protect the amenity of adjacent residents.

Covent Garden wall mounted lantern with adjacent street name plate — A lantern in place, together with a neighbourhood street name plate.

Street lighting power feeder box painted same colour as adjacent brickwork — Installation involved considerable attention to detail, with bracket bolts painted black and all the power supply feeder boxes and conduits painted to match adjacent shops and façades to render them as unobtrusive as possible.

Street lighting power feeder box painted the same colour as the adjacent shopfront

Certificate from Highways Magazine Excellence Awards 2015 — The project was ‘Highly Commended’ at the Highways Magazine Excellence Awards 2015 – a first for a community-led project and for a lighting project in the 15 years of these awards.