William Sugg & Co Heritage Lighting to feature at RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Classic designs by heritage lighting specialists William Sugg & Co will be showcased at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, which takes place from 21st – 25th May 2024. The world-renowned gardens at the show represent the pinnacle of horticultural excellence with showstopping designs, innovative materials and glorious planting.

Grosvenor Lantern Commission

Leading landscape architect Robert Myers has designed show garden St James’s Piccadilly: Imagine the World to be Different. The garden is being built by Stewart Landscape Construction who commissioned William Sugg & Co to produce a bespoke heritage lantern as part of the prestigious project.

The design of the show garden pays homage to the ‘revitalising influence of urban green spaces, symbolising a message of hope and recovery while igniting the imagination of future generations to envision a different world’. Visitors will enter through an archway reminiscent of the gateways leading to the churchyard at St James’s Piccadilly, where they will step into a contemplative haven, featuring a lush, biodiverse planting scheme.

William Sugg & Co’s brief was to produce a lantern, inspired by St James’s church in Piccadilly, that would be installed underneath the archway at the entrance of the garden. With a long history of designing and manufacturing gas lanterns, William Sugg & Co was well placed to take on this unique project having designed and manufactured heritage street lanterns along London streets, in the Royal Parks and on prestigious buildings worldwide for almost two centuries.

Research revealed that the existing lanterns around St James’s Piccadilly are original William Sugg & Co Grosvenor lanterns with working gas mantles, so their classic design was the ideal starting point for the project.  The traditional Grosvenor lantern design is handcrafted in copper and retains the Victorian heritage styling of the original. The Grosvenor has individual radiused glass panel glazing with a hinged glazed door. These lanterns are usually mounted as standard on galvanised open frogs which are powder coated. The manufacturing process of the Grosvenor is such that it is highly durable, with stainless steel rods to improve structural integrity. For this installation the Grosvenor is hung from the centre of the archway via a powder coated steel drop-rod.

This eye-catching lantern, with stunning details, is a truly classic design well suited to a range of urban and rural environments. The highly decorative frieze is a striking feature that makes the Grosvenor lantern truly unique.

Lucy Bubb, Managing Director of Wiliam Sugg & Co explains: “To compliment Robert Myers’s inspiring scheme and to give authenticity to the piece, our bespoke design features a small Grosvenor fitting, illuminated using our electric mock mantle which has been designed to emulate our original gas mantles in terms of design, scale, output and colour temperature. We were delighted to be asked to work on this project which honours our long heritage of creating the original St James’s lanterns in Piccadilly.”

The William Sugg & Co Grosvenor lantern designed for this unique project has been carefully hand crafted in their workshop in Horsham, West Sussex using traditional techniques.  It is made out of copper and then powder coated in a soft brown grey colour to compliment the earthy, natural colour scheme of the exceptional garden design.

Claverton Cloches Collaboration

Claverton Cloches make exquisite garden cloches, based on those found in Victorian kitchen gardens. These miniature glasshouses combine both period charm and practicality and for the first time, the brand will have a stand at RHS Chelsea Flower Show. William Sugg and Co have collaborated with the brand to supply 2 beautiful, heritage gas-powered lanterns, which can be viewed on their stand PW224 and will complement the Victorian inspired kitchen garden aesthetic.

The lanterns featured are Victoria Gas Back lanterns with a single open flame burner, powder coated in a striking bronze finish, in keeping with the traditional heritage design. William Sugg & Co’s Victoria Back lamp design originated over 100 years ago and were designed to light the narrow passageways of Victorian London. The authentic, passage lantern, incorporates a separately mounted back-plate on which the lantern body is fitted and handcrafted in copper to ensure durability.

Beth Gregg, owner and founder of Claverton Cloches comments; “With their rich heritage and outstanding craftsmanship which reflects our own traditional Victorian designs, William Sugg & Co was the perfect partner to collaborate with on this project. I can’t wait to see the final designs featuring on our stand at Chelsea.”