Lighthouse Beacon
Standing at just over 2 metres tall, this magnificent Trinity House navigation beacon. Made by Chance Brothers, is one of our most spectacular finds in recent times.Discovered looking sorry for itself in a garden in Kent, England. According to the family it was one of the main navigation aids from a pier head on the Thames.
From its style and maker, Chance Brothers, this would have been originally installed anywhere between 1900 to the 1920’s.
On its original cast iron pedestal with lovely large rivets galore, the beacon couldn’t be better presented.
Over the course of the last six months it has been through a full, no expense spared, refurbishment including replacements of a couple of broken glasses coming from as far away as Australia in order to keep it as original as possible. The giant internal Fresnel lens inside the beacon is a work of art in its own right and fortunately for us was in superb condition, only needing an intense deep clean. Made up of separate prisms of glass, each taking months to manufacture and hand polish in the Chance Brothers factory.
Inside the internal lens, rather than replacing the original gas burner, developed by Dalen in the late 19th century and made by AGA, we have expertly converted it from gas to electric by mounting a CE certified standard E27 light fitting. As you can imagine the lightbulb itself does not need to be very powerful at all as the masterpiece of a Fresnel lens does ‘all the work’ in focusing the light into a beam, even a 60 watt bulb makes the whole housing glow delightfully.
