Behind the scenes of 180 years of lighting excellence
William Sugg & Co Ltd, founded in 1837, is a world leading heritage lighting manufacturer who design, manufacture and supply a range of interior and exterior decorative and heritage lighting.
A world-class leader in its field, William Sugg work to the highest standards of manufacture, reproduction and refurbishment. Examples of William Sugg’s highly prestigious work can be seen lighting thoroughfares, parks and important buildings throughout London and the world.
In an interview with Mark Jones, Managing Director of William Sugg & Co Ltd, Architect Projects gets a sneak peak at what William Sugg do and some of their team’s most loved projects in recent years.
Mark Jones, said “Our founders were the original creators of gas lighting in the UK and leading engineers of their time. We are so proud of our heritage and history. As we see new technologies coming online it’s a total pleasure to use these new technologies alongside our years of experience of hand crafting to create beautiful and functional light fittings of all sorts that are world class and of the highest quality.”
So, who are William Sugg’s main customers?
“We are lucky to work with a total mixture of clients and no two days are the same; that’s what makes it such a rewarding job! We work with lighting designers, local authorities, architects, garden designers and a wide range of people who are renovating or building their own homes. Our specialists are often seen working alongside other specialists to restore listed buildings (some of which are very well known!)”
What services and products do you sell?
“Our core products that you see on our website are heritage lanterns, columns and we have a great range of flambeaux too. Much of our work is bespoke, however, so we work with the client to design something specific for their needs (be this heritage or more modern), and either use an existing product that is tweaked slightly, or design and engineer something totally from scratch. We are experts in renovation and restoration too, so we help a number of our customers refurbish beautiful old fittings and bring them into the 21st century.”
If you had to pick three or four of your favourite projects what would they be, and why?
“Wow that’s a big question! We’ve always done a lot of work in London and at the major landmarks such as Houses of Parliament and Tower of London, but my top three at this moment in time would be these three…
The New Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
A recent project that is being installed as we speak. The Theatre Royal is such a well-known and important landmark and cultural site, it was a total pleasure to work there. We used a combination of new tech (3D scanning and CNC machining) to recreate brand new, striking light fittings that look like they were made hundreds of years ago. There’s more information on the project in the most recent issue of the ILP Journal (page 34) https://issuu.com/theilp/docs/3054_lighting_journal_october_2020_issuu?fr=sOWJlOTczOTc5Mg
Andy Sturgeon’s winning garden at Chelsea.
We designed a very modern flambeau for world famous Garden Designer Andy Sturgeon. It was the centre piece of his show garden at Chelsea in 2016 and won best in show, a real delight for us all! Find out more here https://www.andysturgeon.com/gardens/rhs-chelsea-flower-show-2016/
Mary Poppins Returns.
This was such an exciting project to work on. We made a huge quantity of traditional gas lanterns which were lit using traditional gas lighting methods, but tweaked slightly to provide a great effect on camera which is slightly different to how a gas light would work normally. The lampposts have their main moment during the musical scene to the song ‘Trip a little light fantastic’. We enjoyed working to tight deadlines and for our beautiful, traditional products to bring the film to life. A really special one for us all.”
William Sugg & Co Ltd are based in Horsham and serve the whole of the UK and overseas.
Read more about William Sugg & Co. Ltd’s recent case studies on their website https://www.williamsugg.co.uk/about-us/our-work/ The full list of lanterns and lampposts are available online too.
For more information contact:
E: marketing@williamsugg.co.uk
T: +44 (0)1293 540111