Dernier & Hamlyn has been designing and manufacturing bespoke lighting for almost 135 years. During that time, we’ve worked on some of the most iconic buildings in the UK and beyond including many of the most famous hospitality spaces.
We’re often asked what our greatest challenge is. We’d probably say improving on history – and it’s a challenge we relish. Recreating heritage designs for modern lighting technology is a large and important part of our work these days. We’re also tasked with reproducing original designs – a painstaking process – or creating new fittings that are in keeping with a building’s heritage. More and more, we’re asked to use new materials to give classic designs a modern twist. Whatever the project, we use old photography, drawings and information from our extensive archives and from the experience of the heads and hands of our highly experienced to get it just right.
While many of our days are spent producing lighting from creative concepts that talented designers share with us, increasingly we are asked to help them reference a building’s past to improve its future.
They will often be challenged to take a hotel and restaurant and give it a contemporary look with period appropriate references to its past. The lighting can be pivotal in achieving these requirements, which can initially appear to be competing and clashing.
Hotel receptions often have statement lighting pieces that with the combined imaginations of designers and our skilled team of engineers and artisans can be reinterpreted, restored and reused with amazing results.
A great example of this approach is the lighting that was made in our factory for the legendary Bloomsbury hotel The Russell which is the namesake and original meeting place of the Russell Group, the world famous association of 24 of the UK’s elite universities and is now the Kimpton Fitzroy.
We worked with Tara Bernerd & Partners when they had been appointed to re-imagine and refurbish the interior layouts and design for the entire hotel and commissioned Dernier & Hamlyn to update light fittings and give them a more current feel. This involved revisiting chandeliers our team made almost over forty years ago to give them a new identity. The aim was to pay respect to the building’s illustrious history, whilst providing stylish form and function for the modern traveller. Back in the 1980s we manufactured 12 large drape and bag crystal chandeliers that were installed throughout the hotel’s public areas, so were the ideal choice to bring them up to date both aesthetically and technically.
To undertake this specialist work, the chandeliers were removed from the hotel and taken to Dernier & Hamlyn’s factory where the crystal was meticulously cleaned, the chandeliers’ metalwork restored and the wiring updated to meet regulatory requirements.
They were then taken back to the hotel and rehung in clusters to give a more current and playful twist to these traditional light fittings.
The Royal Automobile Club’s Pall Mall members club dates back to 1897. With its 108 bedrooms and a choice of restaurants, bars and lounges it often calls on Mosaic Design & Architecture to help it meet the ongoing desire to refurbish and reimagine different areas.
When it comes to lighting, Mosaic has commissioned Dernier & Hamlyn for bespoke elements on several occasions. The most recent commission was for handmade shades for the Club Room’s table lamps which sit atop heritage china bases. Interior designer at Mosaic Siobhan Murray said “We choose Dernier & Hamlyn time and time again. We are always confident that we can rely, not only on the high quality of their work but their communication and reliability which makes our lives easier.”
Previous projects for which Mosaic has commissioned Dernier & Hamlyn include manufacture and restoration of lighting for the Club’s Great Gallery restaurant.
As part of the extensive refurbishment of the iconic Waldorf Hilton hotel in central London we produced three art deco styled glass chandeliers for the hotel’s listed Adelphi Suite. Inspired by the linear symmetry of this classic design period, the chandeliers feature 36 clear reeded circular glass shades fixed to handmade solid brass rings and are each almost 2 metres high. They were manufactured at our factory where many fittings from the hotel were also refurbished.
To discuss your next bespoke lighting project whether it be for manufacturing new fittings, refurbishing existing products or reimagining what exists into what it could be contact Dernier & Hamlyn. You are also welcome to visit our factory and design studio where the magic happens and we collaborate with designers to turn their bespoke lighting aspirations into reality.
