Speirs + Major design lighting scheme for London's historic Burlington Arcade
Speirs + Major, working alongside heritage architectural specialist Blair Associates, has designed a new lighting scheme for the Burlington Arcade in London’s Piccadilly.
The aim of the project was to improve the appearance of the arcade and to restore a sense of its historic ambience.
In removing the existing 20th century-design lanterns, it was decided that uplighting and downlighting would be the key components in improving the arcade's appearance while maintaining appropriate light levels.
A specific part of the design brief was to try to counteract the gloomy appearance the arcade had on a cloudy winter's day. Speirs + Major designed miniature LED lighting with variable colour temperature built into the system to allow the appearance to be adapted to suit the daylight conditions. 4000K white light is used on dull summer days, while on a winter's day a warmer temperature closer to 3500K is used to provide a more inviting appearance in the lower ambient light conditions.
With the LED uplighting supplemented by spotlighting in the archways, uplighting and downlighting are automatically programmed to only come on when there is insufficient daylight, with colour temperature being used selectively according to the season. During the course of the evening, these main lighting elements progressively dim and warm, allowing the detailing of the architecture to be revealed by the spotlighting.
The building, almost 200 years old, is one of the worlds oldest and most famous shopping arcades and has been used as a location for various television programmes including Borgen and The Apprentice. The arcade is protected by liveried guards called The Beadles who make up the smallest private police force in existence.
