As part of The Crown Estate’s £1 billion investment to develop London’s famous Regent Street bespoke lighting specialists Dernier & Hamlyn restored and recreated light fittings in art deco style for the bars and restaurants in the recently completed mixed use development known as Quadrant 3. For Dernier & Hamlyn it was a complex project with the aim of producing light fittings that would help to take the bars and restaurants back to their original style when they were opened in 1915 as part of the Regent Palace Hotel which, at the time, was the largest hotel in Europe with 1028 bedrooms. Since then not entirely sympathetic changes had been made to the lighting and it was The Crown Estate’s intention to re-invoke the unique ambience of the hotel.
Established in 1888, Dernier & Hamlyn has a long and distinguished history in the design and manufacture of light fittings for commercial, historic and residential sites and worked closely with developers Stanhope and main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine at Quadrant 3 which was delivered four months ahead of schedule and under budget.
Based in South London many of the Dernier & Hamlyn team’s varied skills were utilised during this project. For example in the main restaurant three large oval lights made of cast aluminium and glass and eight u-shaped fittings required extensive renovation. Over the years various glass panels had been replaced leaving a mishmash of styles and designs which were removed and replaced, although they have been stored for heritage recording purposes.
In order to replace the glass sections Dernier & Hamlyn first had to produce a variety of straight and curved moulds to produce the various sizes and types of glass panels required which were then installed in the restaurant.
During restoration it was also discovered that the formerly beautiful mirrored columns had been plastered over. Dernier & Hamlyn’s skilled craftsmen have removed this aberration and refurbished the mirrors to their original peach shading to reflect and complement the restaurant’s updated historic lighting.
Dernier & Hamlyn’s joint managing director Jeremy Quantrill comments:
“This was an extremely demanding project but one that we are extremely proud to have been involved in. Helping to reinstate the hotel’s former splendour as part of this major historic restoration programme was very exciting and seeing the lights installed makes me extremely proud of our team and what they are capable of.”
