Cathedral lighting project
Cathedral lighting project
September 17, 2021
Simon Lace, Chapter Clerk and Executive Director reports on the overhaul of the Cathedral lighting. Featured in The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 2021.
Over the last few years the Cathedral has quietly been undergoing a transformation. In 2016 the Lottery-funded Hidden Treasures; Fresh Expressions (HTFE) project delivered an amazing makeover of the Cathedral's Crypt and Chapter Library. This was followed by the repair of the eastern roofs, funded by the Government's First World War Fund, the restoration of the Presbytery southern pinnacle, the Quire ceiling and vaults and the Nave north Clerestory, and the first phase of the window repairs.
Whilst the Cathedral's fabric has been undergoing extensive restoration its infrastructure has not been forgotten. Easily the most visible (quite literally) recent element of this work has been the complete replacement of the Cathedral's lighting system.
The 2018 Quinquennial Inspection by John Bailey, the Cathedral Surveyor, highlighted the fact that most of the Cathedral's electrical installation was of some age and had been amended and extended on many occasions. The HTFE project completed in the Crypt replaced the electrical systems in this area but the rest of the Cathedral's electrical systems have not been upgraded significantly for many years.
In recent years electrical mains have had to be replaced due to failure and in 2018, for the first time since 2006, electrical inspections of all the Cathedral's internal electrical systems and external lighting systems were undertaken. As well as highlighting a number of urgent repair issues, which were immediately addressed, the inspections revealed that the electrical systems urgently needed to be upgraded. We also needed to replace many of the light fittings as it was proving very difficult and expensive to source the obsolete lamps.
Any intervention involving the historic fabric of the Cathedral is complicated and the replacement of the lighting system was no exception. Developing the brief for the design tender was a convoluted exercise: new installations had to avoid or minimise alterations to the existing fabric and the new electrical systems had to take account of the archaeological importance of the Cathedral's fabric, avoiding significant harm.
The development of the new lighting system was further complicated by the fact that the Cathedral's interior, due to the nature of its evolution, is a series of spaces divided by the Crossing, Pulpitum and other fixed structures. Any new installations needed to deal with each space alone but also within an overall and co-ordinated approach. The new systems also needed to be accessible, serviceable and programmable, with the lighting system controllable by iPad and Wi-Fi. There would be a number of set scenes, the ability to programme new scenes as needed and a manual override if the system went down. We also wanted the lighting installations to be dimmable and, very importantly, to use LED lamps to help to reduce the Cathedral's carbon footprint as well as minimising running costs.
Not every piece of lighting equipment was to be replaced - we wanted to retain Emil Godfrey's chandeliers in the Nave and to bring back into use the surviving 19th century gasoliers in the east end.
The lighting installation also had to be developed in conjunction with the Cathedral's Liturgical Plan, which identified a number of particular areas and spaces which needed enhancement and the ability to be highlighted: the central space of the Nave, its eastern end under the Crossing and its western end all had specific reasons for lighting enhancement. Most Sunday services have a focus at the eastern end of the Nave, so the Pulpitum needed to be lit and to have the potential for colour to enhance the backdrop for worship. Lighting levels in these areas needed the ability to allow choirs to operate and to allow a visual focus.
Both the North and South Transepts needed the ability to be enhanced for specific liturgical activities while the Lady Chapel, used for weekday and other smaller services, needed specific lighting to enhance worship and to allow a focus in a number of different locations.
Architectural lighting throughout the nave. Geoff Watkins, Aerial Imaging South East.
The Quire needed to have specific lighting to enhance worship and highlight its importance, and the eastern Crossing also needed to have lighting which enhanced it for services and events when the eastern end of the Cathedral was the focus for worship.
The High Altar needed careful lighting to allow it to be a focus at the east end of the Cathedral, with a further focus on the Sanctuary step where the pulpit and lectern stand and an altar is sometimes brought forward. We also wanted to be able to spotlight specific features such as the Nave pulpit, the High Altar, the Chapels of St John and St Peter and the HMS Kent Bell.
Architectural lighting was needed to show off the magnificence of the Cathedral interior: the vaults and arcades and the majestic architecture. These settings could be used to bring the building alive, particularly at night. During worship we could imagine the vaults alone being illuminated at Christmas, allowing a magical floating experience. We wanted the architectural lighting to be used to tell the story of the Cathedral's evolution, to highlight the best features and to be an aid to worship and mission. It could, for example, guide visitors to specific points or just simply inspire with the east end illuminated at night and viewed from the west end of the Nave.
Once the brief was finished, we invited three companies to tender for the design work and in October 2019 CES Lighting, of Wallington, Surrey, was selected as the system designers.
Over the next two years we worked closely with Ryan Slessinger and David Burch from CES to understand how their expertise could deliver our detailed brief. The Coronavirus pandemic provided an unwelcome and intermittent interruption to the work, particularly in getting the design approved by the Cathedral's Fabric Advisory Committee and the Cathedral Fabric Commission for England during lockdown, but in the summer of 2021 the scheme was finally passed. Funding for the scheme was very generously provided by grants of £500,000 from the Friends of Rochester Cathedral and £86,000 from the Rochester Cathedral Trust. Without the Friends' support in particular the new scheme could never have been envisaged.
Work commenced in October 2021 and the bulk of the new system was installed before the end of March 2022. There are still a few elements to finish, such as replacing the lights in the choir stalls, but the new lighting was showcased at taster.
A short video portfolio to display various elements of the lighting design carried out at Rochester Cathedral.
Although the Cathedral's external lighting was excluded from the scheme on grounds of cost, we did want to be able to illuminate the spire and this was done superbly by our electricians, Gilbert & Stamper. The ability to light the spire has allowed us to raise awareness of good causes and has spawned thousands of wonderful online images of the Cathedral and Rochester.
The new lighting scheme is not only practical, reducing our running costs and our carbon footprint, but it allows us to celebrate the glories of the building and deliver our mission in a setting which is both beautiful and respectful.
A new sound system and improvements to our live-streaming arrangements will be installed over the summer and a report into how we can improve our heating system will shortly arrive on my desk. The quiet transformation continues.
Simon Lace
Chapter Clerk and Executive Director
A stunning collection of photographs and a panoramic view of the new lighting scheme are available on the CES Lighting website.
In 2023 the Rochester Cathedral lighting project received an IALD Award of Excellence.
The spire was fitted with full-colour LED lighting in early 2020 to acknowledge, commemorate and celebrate national and international events and causes throughout the year.
The Friends of Rochester Cathedral were founded to help finance the maintenance of the fabric and grounds. The Friends’ annual reports have become a trove of articles on the fabric and history of the cathedral.
Keeping the Cathedral standing, warm, lit, beautiful and ready to receive worshippers and visitors is a never-ending task.