Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images for Bond Street Development Group
If you’re looking to be dazzled this festive season, look no further than London’s Bond Street which has taken centre stage to host a spectacular illumination scheme that celebrates the colourful history of the world’s most illustrious luxury destination.
To provide a source of inspiration for the 2014 new festive illuminations, the New West End Company’s Bond Street Development Group delved deep into the archives to explore the heritage of the street, established in 1686 and now home to over 125 of the world’s leading luxury stores including more than 80 designer flagships which sees £1billion of spend annually.
Photo by Nicky J Sims/Getty Images
In the late 1700s Bond Street was the favourite haunt of ‘The Bond Street Loungers’; dapper men who promenaded the street and became the early fashionistas or ‘peacocks’ of their day. They were depicted in literature and art and immortalised in a cartoon by James Gillray (1796). Beau Brummell and “Poodle” Byng were the most notorious.
The 2014 £1million scheme has been dedicated to the gentlemen of this era, with over a quarter of a million elegant lamps [LED] displayed as glorious white Peacocks. The display, which will be viewed by over 10 million visitors from more than 100 international countries spending over £400 million in the next seven weeks, is set to lead the thousands of lighting displays to take place all over the world in that it is designed and rooted in genuine historical fact.
To support the design decision for the scheme, Bond Street’s Managing Director, Beverley Aspinall, established a panel of experts from brands that have graced the pavements of Bond Street since 1911; Asprey, Cartier, Charbonnel et Walker, The Fine Art Society and Fenwick. The 2014 venture reflects back to the first time that Bond Street was liveried in one scheme which was supported and established by the Bond Street brands. In 1911, brands came together to fund a £1,800 scheme for the Coronation of King George V.
Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images for Bond Street Development Group
Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images for Bond Street Development Group
Photo by Nicky J Sims/Getty Images
Bond Street Illuminations: The Facts
• A multidisciplinary team of 12 people developed the project in a total of 1,300 hours
• More than 5,000 hours were spent on the construction phase and a task force were responsible for the installation over 10 nights
• Almost 13km worth of cabling was used, which is equivalent to 14 times the length of Bond Street
• More than 250,000 LED lamps
• 10 million visitors will see the Bond Street illuminations
• The scheme is a £1 million project, which will continue for four years
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