One of the largest tapestries in London
The Worshipful Company of Butchers is one of the seven oldest of the City of London Livery Companies and there is a tradition that in the year 975AD there were situated diverse slaughterhouses and a Butchers Hall where the craftsmen met. Thus an unbroken connection between the Butchers and Smithfield extends upwards of 1000 years.
We were asked to light the Banquet Hall Tapestry which is believed to be the largest in the City of London.
The Tapestry measures approximately 9 x 4 metres and was made at Aubusson by the same weavers who provided the Sutherland Tapestry for Coventry Cathedral.
Within a traditional ‘Butchers Blue’ border is depicted the 'Entrance to Smithfield Market' and other well known City buildings.
Yates Associates undertook the lighting of The Raphael Cartoons at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1997 and this presented a similar task, ie lighting the actual picture and not the frame/border.
Several lamp sources were investigated and calculations run. Void space for the lighting luminaire housings was very restricted as we particularly wished to specify recessed units rather than utilise surface housings.
The calculations proved that we could employ 10No adjustable recessed downlights housing 35Watt 38º low voltage diacroic lamps which we used and focussed for the project.
