St Bartholomew's Hospital
Lighting design: Sutton Vane Associates
Photography: Matthew Andrews
Stoane Lighting and Sutton Vane Associates come together to transform the striking Grade I listed Hogarth Stair and Great Hall at 900-year-old St Bartholomew’s Hospital.
We specify Stoane Lighting products because they are very reliable and well-built. They have a simple looking, pleasing aesthetic. We like that they are a
B Corp company and strive to be as ecological as possible.
As part of the renovation of the North Wing, Sutton Vane Associates skilfully met the demand of no visible lighting fixtures. They thoroughly investigated the space and its access, and discovered that they could utilise old ventilation slots to project light to the floor from behind the ornate gilding. Our flexible made-to-order service allowed an easy-to-install bespoke threaded mount solution.
The heavily decorated ceiling is lit by surface mounted ZTA spotlights hidden on the upper window ledges. The result is the Great Hall is illuminated in a way that is both subtle and beautiful.
It was decided at an early stage to have no visible light fittings. The space is used for a huge variety of functions: presentations, banquets, receptions, large parties etc., so the light had to be very flexible.
On site inspection, SVA discovered that there were little slots in the highly decorated ceiling roses, which would have been made for ventilation when gas lighting was installed. We discovered that these could be accessed from the attic above the room.
We commissioned Stoane Lighting to make a large numbers of spots on special threaded mounts to enable light to shine through the narrow slots and provide light to the floor below. This was important as the lights needed to be attached to threaded rods on Unistrut to allow for both vertical and horizontal movement, to achieve the optimum positions for each spotlight in a confined space between the historic plaster ceiling and the structure above. Stoane Lighting had a perfect range of beam angles to solve this tricky challenge.
As the light falls it catches the magnificent gilding that twinkles and sparkles.
Similarly, as you climb the Hogarth Stairs, ZTA fixtures are positioned discreetly and sympathetically finished to bring the early 18th century paintings back to life. Special attention was made to minimise the reflection from the artworks' gloss surface.
Visitors experience the Hogarth paintings on all the walls as they walk up and down the stairs. They have a range of views as they move in three dimensions. The paintings have a shiny finish, so one of the big challenges SVA faced was to light the paintings with minimum amount of reflection from a huge range of viewpoints. As it was not possible to hide all the lights it was decided to be honest, so some of the spots are visible, but they are located in discreet places and finished in colours that allow them to blend into their backgrounds.
The lighting of the steps was achieved secretly for suitable levels of safety and comfort, and emergency lighting. There are decorative roses in the ceiling and their central holes had been blocked by 1960s plasterwork, this was removed and spotlights/downlights installed to provide light to the stair.
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