Walk through a British city centre after dark and the mood feels different from a decade ago. Instead of sodium orange street lamps and shopfront glare, you are more likely to find programmed LED façades, interactive light trails and carefully lit riversides that double as open air galleries. London Design Festival pieces such as Lee Broom’s Beacon at the Southbank Centre, a monumental lighting installation that syncs with Big Ben’s chimes, show how design-led illumination can draw crowds to the river at night and turn a thoroughfare into a destination.
These spectacles sit within a serious economic backdrop. The Greater London Authority estimates that the evening and night-time economy in the wider West End generated around 14 billion pounds of GVA in 2022, with arts, culture and leisure making up about half of that in the Heart of London area. At the same time, the Night Time Industries Association warns that one in four late night venues has closed since 2020, creating patches of what it calls night-time deserts. In this context, illuminated design is not just decoration. It is a tool for placemaking, safety and economic recovery.
This walkthrough looks at four examples across London, Glasgow, Greater Manchester and the seaside, using each to unpack key ideas: placemaking, colour temperature, light pollution and wellbeing. Along the way, it considers why people are so keen to photograph these installations, and how to capture them without blowing out the highlights.
Continue reading “How Illuminated Design Is Re-Shaping The New British Night”
