There is another free parking day in Guildford this Saturday the 13th of March so why not make the most of it and come and visit Guildford’s famous cobbled high street and the surrounding shopping district, full to the brim with cafes, restaurants and great shops.
If you’re new to Guildford then make sure you don’t miss out on the Castle, dating back to Saxon times, the clock, dating back to the 1600s and of course, The Lighting Centre, dating back to 1985.
If you’ve got this far then you’ve probably already seen our new lightingcentre.co.uk home page but we’re quite proud of it so we thought we’d give it a special mention.
If you are interested in seeing which products are popular then there is now a box on the home page which clicks directly through to our top ten best sellers.
We also now have a box that clicks through to our Italian lighting range, which is great if you are looking for something different to wow your neighbours.
We are currently in the process of adding a range of mirrors to lightingcentre.co.uk. The range will include plain mirrors, illuminated mirrors, bathroom mirrors, mirrors with shaver sockets, mirrors with cupboards, mirrors with shelves and decorative mirrors. Unfortunately due to their delicate nature we will not be posting them out to customers so all mirror orders will have to be collected from our Guildford lighting showroom. Apologies to all our non local customers.
To view our selection of mirrors then search for the mirror category at the bottom left hand side of the home page.
The Lighting Centre, Guildford showroom is now full to the brim with brand new stock. Hundreds of new designs are on display and we will be adding them to the website as quickly as we can so keep checking the new arrivals page or pop in to the showroom and say hello.
The year 2010 has begun and with it comes a great selection of brand new lighting designs.
January is always an exciting month within the the lighting industry. This is when all the new lighting designs are launched. The NEC plays host to the Lighting show where all the UK importers and manufacturers put on display all of their latest lighting designs. This year has been no exception on the lighting design front, however there has been a few changes to the importer line up. A few of the big players including Dar Lighting and Franklite Lighting decided not to show at the NEC and instead hosted their own mini lighting shows at their head offices. All the new lighting designs were still out on display but it meant a bit more traveling around for the retailers hunting out the new designs. Could this dilution mean the end of the Lighting show at the NEC? We’ll have to wait for 2011 to find out.
The new designs were worth traveling for. A strong theme for 2010 was the continued strength of polished chrome as a colour choice. A lot more of the black chrome colour was on display too. These finishes were often seen decorated with really heavy, polished crystal shades to give that quite chunky style. These crystal shades were paired to elegant metalwork arms to give balance to the lighting designs.
One problem with the Lighting show at the NEC is that it is really only UK suppliers who display there. It would be nice to see more of a selection of Italian lighting or German lighting on display. It would be fantastic to see lighting manufacturers such as Grossmann Leuchten from Germany with their products on display at the UK Lighting show. The natural flowing shapes in Italian lighting and the straight edge crispness of German lighting are very different to one another but would both flatter the show immensely.
If a retailer is looking to stock Italian lighting then the Lighting show in Milan is quite a spectacle. Held every two years, this is where all of the greatest Italian lighting designs are put on display. If German lighting is more your thing then heading over to Frankfurt for the German lighting show is your best bet.
To view a selection of Italian lighting or German lighting visit The lighting Centre in Guildford or go to www.lightingcentre.co.uk.
January is the month of the lighting show where all the latest lighting designs are unveiled and we’ve started taking delivery of the new lines already. Many are on display in our Guildford showroom and we will be getting the new designs online as soon as possible. Watch this space…
Happy New Year to everyone from the team at The Lighting Centre in Guildford, Surrey. We hope that everyone is coping with the snow and you have a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.
In recent years German lighting has become more and more popular in the UK but how and why has it achieved such success?
The lighting industry is very much guided by the fashions of the time. As the high street follows the catwalk, the lighting industry follows the housing market. The number of modern houses and apartments has increased dramatically over the past ten years in Britain and with these new builds come simple layouts and smaller room sizes with lower ceilings. This has meant that lighting designs have had to change. The designs are smaller and less fussy. This sums up most German lighting designs very well. Straight, clean lines and simple shapes are what German designers do best and it is this style that suits a lot of modern houses in the UK. Companies like Grossmann lighting in particular have been consistently coming up with modern simple designs for years. Designs like the Grossmann lighting Magic range for instance, has been one of the most popular.
Another reason for the success of German lighting is the quality of the goods produced. Thanks mainly to the automotive industry, the tag line ‘Made in Germany’ has come to represent the highest levels of build quality and intelligent engineering. This is very much true of German lighting. Grossmann lighting for instance, manufacture every component themselves. Not outsourcing to save money like many companies. Grossmann also employ their own team of designers to make sure that they always have the most cutting edge designs and to ensure that Grossmann lighting products are always built with the end user in mind.
To view a full range of German lighting including Grossmann lighting and many other manufacturers, please visit The Lighting Centre, Guildford or visit www.lightingcentre.co.uk
Murano glass is recognised as being special the world over but what is the history behind it and how did it earn such a reputation, particularly in the lighting industry?
The island of Murano is located just off the coast of Venice, Italy. Its location helped Venice to become a substantial trading port and the regular Asian and Muslim visitors helped to influence the style and culture of the inhabitants and in turn the lighting designs that they created.
It is thought that glass has been made in Murano ever since the 7th century, however it is not until the 13th century that Murano’s place in history was established when all the Venetian glass blowers were moved from Venice over to Murano because of fears that the glass blowers may cause a fire that would spread from one wooden framed building to another, potentially wiping out most of Venice. By the 16th century almost half of the islands population were involved in the glass making industry. Ever since this time the skills of the glass blowers has increased allowing more and more intricate and beautiful designs to be created. The Italian government and education system has until more recently made efforts to preserve the significant reserves of craft skills which other countries might have neglected because they want to out-source to countries where it can be done more cheaply.
The stunning designs of the Murano glass look even better when illuminated so it was only a matter of time before Italian lighting designers and Murano glass blowers got together to create some beautiful collections of Italian lighting. The Italian lights bring the vibrant colours in the Murano glass to life. The delicacy in the glass is matched by the intimacy of the hand painted metalwork of the Italian lighting. Each arm of the lights is carefully formed and shaped before it is painted. If you were to look at the arm of an Italian light fitting, often you can see the individual brush strokes of the artist.
The combination of Italian lighting and Murano glass is one that works so well I am sure it will long continue.
To view a collection of Italian lighting visit The Lighting Centre, Guildford or www.lightingcentre.co.uk.
Choosing the right light for your bathroom has never been easy, but in recent years it’s become that bit harder with the addition of new rules and regulations that mean you can’t put any old light into your bathroom. Hopefully this guide will give you a better understanding of what bathroom lights can be put where and will make the job of choosing your new bathroom lighting that little bit easier.
The basic idea is that a bathroom is split into three different zones. These zones are decided upon by how close they are to water. The closer your bathroom light is to water then the higher the risk of you, water and electricity meeting which means that a greater level of protection is required.
The system has been designed to protect the end user from the obvious potential dangers that arise when electricity and water are in close proximity. Every bathroom light is given an IP rating, which stands for Ingress Protection. The higher the IP rating, the greater the level of protection. Each IP figure contains two numerical characters e.g. IP44. The first number refers to the products protection against dust and the second refers to its protection against moisture.
As an example of what the numbers mean then a bathroom light with a rating of IPX3 is protected against spraying water up to 60 degrees from vertical, IPX4 would be protected against splashing water from any direction, IPX5 is protected against jets of water from any direction, IPX6 is protected from powerful jets of water with limited ingress with no harmful effect, compared to a bathroom light with a rating of IPX7 which would be protected against total immersion in water for limited periods.
Each zone has a requirement of a minimum IP rating for the bathroom lighting that is going to be used.
Zone 0 is the zone inside the bath or shower itself. Any bathroom light fitting used in this zone must be low voltage (12v max) and be rated at least IP 67.
Zone 1 is the area above the bath to a height of 2.25m from the floor. Here, bathroom lights of IP 44 minimum has to be used.
Zone 2 is I suppose what you might call the splash zone and is the area extending 60 cm outwardly around the edge of the sink, bath or shower up to 2.25 m from the floor. Here bathroom lighting of IP44 minimum can be used.
The area outside these zones above the bath or shower should be considered zone 2 up to a height of 3m. It also important to note that any bathroom lighting circuit should be protected by a 30 ma residual current device (RCD).