Back to News“Beyond The Bridge” is a cool and creative community driven intervention that has transformed the Falcon Road Rail Bridge underpass in Clapham, south London, from a dingy, uninviting urban walkway to a safer, more pleasant and visually stimulating environment with the application art, lighting and logistics.
Now featuring 70 x Anolis Eminere 4 luminaires plus other new lighting fixtures, the project was commissioned by the London Borough of Wandsworth, in a bid to transform the 100-metre-long major rail and road intersection in a practical way that addressed community concerns and become a local talking point.
A competition for architects, designers and artists to present ideas was launched in 2024, resulting in a winning entry picked for its innovation and vibrance.
“Beyond The Bridge” was a bold collaborative vision, collectively imagined by GPAD architects, community engagement specialist POoR, MRG Studio, Sutton Vane Associates (SVA), Cundall and MDA Consulting, with SVA responsible for the lighting design.
SVA in turn specified the 70 x Anolis Eminere 4 low-profile, high output IP67 rated LED strip luminaires to be a major part of the new lighting scheme, with 35 fixtures installed near the top of both sides of the underpass walls on special mounting brackets.
Mark Sutton Vane who heads up the Hammersmith based architectural lighting design practice, explained that POor (Power Out of Restriction) had engaged in hugely valuable ground research with the community to get feedback and inspiration for the artwork that now stretches along the full length of the passage … which then needed appropriate lighting.
There were three elements to the lighting design of “Beyond the Bridge”.
The first was to provide comfortable and legally compliant street lighting for all using the busy road that was brighter at night and dimmed down to 20% during the day; the second was to provide balanced lighting for the art panels and the third element was adding illuminative fun into the equation, which is where the Anolis fixtures came in.
“We wanted to be able to colour the whole scenic area along the bridge” stated Mark, “this included the walls and the overhead steel support beams, so we needed powerful high-quality luminaires with very good colour mixing, and that’s when Anolis came to our attention”.
The Council chose a signature blue colour from the Anolis fixtures which lights the whole roof elegantly and provides a nice iridescent glow. This runs for 10 minutes then morphs into a very subtle and slow rainbow chase activated over a 5-minute period, carefully calculated to not be distracting for passing vehicles, before reverting to the solid blue.
The Emineres are programmed and run via a Pharos controller.
The fixtures also needed to be robust.
Being waterproof was a given, as was extended longevity, and they also have to withstand the bridge’s constant vibrations from Network Rail rolling stock traversing multiple tracks above, going in and out of Clapham Junction station - one of the busiest rail intersections in the UK - that operates round the clock.
The lights also had to be resistant to other common urban hazards like pigeons, although reducing their presence was also part of the overall project.
It was the first time that SVA has specified Anolis products.
A major challenge for Mark and his team was to find fixtures that were tough and well-engineered AND that met all the technical specifications which included DMX control, brightness and the high-quality output and colour rendering. Eminere 4 was chosen after extensive testing.
The Eminere 4s are also a highly sustainable solution, with power consumption that is straightforward to calculate for UMSUG (Unmetered Suppliers User Group) evaluation, which measures the energy consumption of non-individually metered electrical equipment connected to a distribution network … for accurate billing.
Anolis designed and built the special Eminere 4 mounting brackets which utilised as many existing holes as possible in the original Victorian brick walls from the previous lighting installation. The brackets had many variants as the runs of lights are not exactly straight, and had to negotiate drains, pipes and other obstructions.
Mark was impressed that none of this was an issue for Anolis. He liaised with Ashley Popple from the Anolis UK office and also appreciated the speed of manufacture and delivery as the project realisation lead time was swift once the design received the full go ahead.
The lighting installation was completed on site by electrical contractor Armadillo Lighting using bespoke cable layout designed by Sutton Vane Associates to ensure all necessary wiring stayed neat and well protected.
Everyone involved is immensely proud of this project noted Mark, which also coincided with Wandsworth Council’s year as London Borough of Culture in 2025. Mark enjoyed the experience and camaraderie of being part of a “Highly skilled and talented” team delivering a public art initiative that will be a permanent legacy on the Clapham Junction landscape.
PhotoCredit: Katie Holmes
