Restored theatre lighting, transformed into beautiful vintage style feature lamps for your home
I've always had a huge passion for the theatre, and especially scenic design and lighting effects.
Over the last 10-20 years there has been a huge shift from using traditional incandescent lamps (bulbs) to the use of LED (Light emitting diode). You may recognise the LED as being the red standby light on your TV.
Recently there has been major advances in LED technology, LED's are smaller than traditional incandescent lamps, they are more energy efficient and don't get as hot - this means that casings for theatrical lights and spotlights can be made smaller and lighter and are becoming more affordable.
Also colour changing and colour mixing technologies with LED lights means that traditional methods to produce coloured lighting effects such as coloured filter gels and colour wheels are now redundant.
Modern theatre lights with moving lantern heads mounted on motorised bases means that large traditional follow spots which were moved by hand by a lighting operator are also no longer required.
Theatres up and down the country are now upgrading their lighting systems which means lots of beautiful old theatre lights are being disposed of many of them are sadly simply thrown in a skip or weighed in as scrap metal.
We can upcycle and transform old theatre lights to turn them into a vintage lighting feature for your home
At Stage Left Lux we've made it our mission to save and preserve some of our wonderful theatrical history, by saving old theatre lights preserving them, rewiring them and turning them into beautiful feature lights for your home.
Theatre lights come in many different shapes, sizes and styles depending on their intended use and make an attractive vintage lamp.
From large flood lights which were to wash the stage with coloured light to aerodynamic spotlights fitted with various types of lenses from plain convex lenses which were to produce a narrow beam of concentrated light perfect for lighting individual performers or even shining a beam of light onto a mirror ball. To beautiful Fresnel lenses which produce a soft edged circle of light.
At Stage Left Lux we like to keep the integrity of the theatre lights that we restore, we will rewire using authentic vintage style braided cable, we will also keep the original paint work and colours.
There were two major players in the British theatre lighting industry; Strand Lighting Company founded in 1914 in London and FWJ Furse Lighting Company based on Nottingham, now owned by CCT lighting
Both of these companies had a huge range of iconic designs and like all good rivals challenged each other to do big and better things, and producing their own versions - such as the spotlight model Strand Patt 23 and Furse's version the Furse model SPR profile spotlight.
We told you they looked similar!!
The designer of the Strand Patt23 - was Morgan McLeod he originally designed aeroplanes hence the beautiful aerodynamic curved body of the theatre lantern.
Strand Patt23
Furse model SPR
If you've got an old vintage theatre light that you would like to restore or rewire, get in touch with us.
As many theatres are starting to upgrade their old lighting systems.
Some of these sadly are simply thrown into a skip, but others are salvaged and saved. You can often pick up old theatre lights in junk shops and antiques centres and they are normally very affordable if they are in their original condition.
In their original condition the wiring on theatre lamps may be old and unsave and they are often fitted with very powerful bulbs which are not suitable for use in a domestic setting.
Restored theatre lights can either be mounted on a tripod as a floor-standing lamp perfect as an ambient reading light, wall mounted on a bracket or even ceiling mounted which is great for illuminating artwork.
Stage Left Lux can sympathetically repair, rewire and restore old theatre lights, by replacing bulb holders with modern equivalents and rewiring to make them safe for use in the home.
Here's an old Furse SPR Theatre light that we transformed from a rusty barn find into a beautiful tripod lamp.
See more of what Stage Left Lux do
explore our online lighting shop or get in touch to discuss bespoke lighting design or repairs for vintage and antique lamps.
