50 St James’s
London

Client
London Clubs
International plc
Robert Winfield
Group Estates Manager

 

Interior Design
Robert Lush RIP
M&E Consultants
Cundall Johnston & Partners
020 7776 5000

 

Contractors
Sherry Lighting
020 8840 7688

 

Lighting Designer
Ben Pearce-Higgins
020 7483 2253

 

Product Used
70 x VMD300/12
11 x VMD400/12
1 x EXTVM300/12

50 St James’s is London’s premier gaming Club, the jewel in London Clubs’ crown. A Grade 1 Listed building, originally built in 1840 to the designs of Benjamin Wyatt, it has recently been totally rejuvenated, with slavish attention to detail within the strictures of English Heritage.

Brief
To create the dramatic level of lighting typifying a flagship casino, with special effects and the development of a sophisticated lighting system for the gaming tables themselves.

 

Challenges
This was a substantial project, involving the lighting throughout the building, an especially challenging task as it was decided that low-voltage lighting would be used extensively. However, the Grade 1 nature meant that local transformers could not be used. Consequently, long cable runs were a pre-requisite.

 

Project Detail
Eight chandeliers and seven lanterns for the fine rooms, reception and corridors were converted to uplighters by adding brass spinnings containing wide angle 12v 50w dichroic lamps. Each of these was fed by a 300w Dimmable VoltMaster.

 

Some 180 recessed and adjustable Artemide downlighters were used for the corridors, staircase, lift lobbies, WCs, and niches in the restaurant - all being driven by 30 VoltMasters. A further 15 VoltMasters were used to drive the uplighters on the grand Staircase, 3 more for the special "Lalique" mask lights in the second-floor, art-deco Ocean Liner style restaurant, where a further 12 were also used for the special Sunburst low-voltage fitting, designed by the late Robert Lush.

 

The final low-voltage flourish was for the exterior, where eight specially concealed VoltMasters were used to illuminate the facade.

 

Result
Robert Winfield, Group Estates Manager, London Clubs Management: "We do like it, we think it's very good. The chandeliers are the grand feature, but there's discreet lighting where necessary. The actual finished effect is lovely and we get a lot of good comments from customers., who love the restaurant lighting. When we surveyed members and asked them to compare the club with the Ritz - the place we moved out of - they said they much preferred this one because it was lighter and brighter."

 

Ben Pearce-Higgins, Lighting Designer: "VoltMaster was the only way to meet the brief using low-voltage. The units were all sited in remote areas - all of them at least 30 metres and many as much as 50 metres away. Thanks to VoltMaster's unique sensor circuit, which stabilises the voltage to 11.8 volts at the lamp, these long cable runs posed no problems whatsoever. This has been a very successful project".

“Thanks to VoltMaster's
unique sensor circuit,
which stabilises the voltage to 11.8 volts at the lamp, these long cable runs posed no problems whatsoever”

Ben Pearce-Higgins
Lighting Designer