The Lights Before Christmas

Carnaby Paper Chains

Christmas simply wouldn’t be Christmas without twinkling lights. Nothing gets us into the festive mood and cheers the heart on a chilly evening quite like a collection of pretty sparkles. We take for granted that, every year, London’s dark nights will be decorated with magical illuminations. But, look again. Many of these displays are more then just a few fairy lights strung together in the treetops. They’re pop-up sculptures, works of art that reflect their environment and celebrate the fact that, at Christmas, we can all create something artistic and decorative. Loma-Ann Bonner spoke to Paul Dart – formerly a theatre designer who created striking designs for The Cherry Orchard at the National Theatre; London Contemporary Dance and Frankfurt Opera among others – at James Glancy Design, who spends his life dreaming up the beautiful light displays appearing on some of London’s most famous streets and areas including Carnaby, Marylebone High Street and Piccadilly Arcade.

How did you get involved with designing Christmas lights for a living?
After working as a theatre designer I started the Obsessions store ( in Seven Dials ) and franchise.
Nicky Kinnaird -  who founded Space NK -  was doing the marketing for St Christopher’s Place at the time and she wanted their Christmas lights to be non-traditional, girlie and bright. She came to us for ideas, it gathered momentum and I’ve been doing lights full time ever since!
It’s a year long activity as we have 50 different clients.

You must enjoy it.
I do. London is a leading cultural city, we’re proud of our fashion and music.
And the Christmas decorations should reflect that.
What I’m trying to do is  re-invent the tradition of Christmas through Modernism with a hint of Baroque.
The main thing is I want someone to turn the corner into the street and gasp. Just like when your Christmas tree lights were first turned on as a child.

How do you decide the themes for each area?
It has to reflect the environment and who goes there. For Carnaby the shoppers are young and they like the ironic and non-traditional.

This year you’ve installed giant paper chains, connecting the streets in the Carnaby area.
 I wanted to do something quite retro. The chains have a child-like quality
We all remember making paper chains : it was one of the few times people made something, put it in the air and called it a decoration
By expanding the scale of the chains they’ve become sculptural.
And this year they’re environmentally sound, using power from the existing street lights.

Do you look to art for inspiration?
 I go to modern art galleries a lot.
Last year’s Carnaby lights ( giant lightbulbs ) were inspired by a photograph I saw at the Tate Modern of a man who had 3000 lightbulbs in his flat.

Are the lights works of art?
It’s an odd art form, but it’s essentially like sculpting.
There’s a lot of phooey about an empty plinth and what should be on there, but people will walk down the street covered in lights and dismiss them as “just Christmas Lights.’
I always equate the lights with the mashed potato mountain in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
People have a compulsion to sculpt something.

Really?
Yes. It’s this weird cultural lunacy.
Christmas is the one time that people create something themselves: they put lights up, they decorate their tree.
As an art form it’s not really given enough credit.

How long does it take from idea to the great switch-on?
About six months. We have to make a prototype as they’ve never been made before, then they’re approved, then made in the workshops.
There’s a very technical side to it of course. They go up over four nights with a team of about 25 working in all weathers, from about 8pm till 2am.

Has a light ever been dropped?
Absolutely not!

Do you go to all the switch-ons?
I do to the new ones ( some clients have the same lights every year ) Carnaby is very special to me so I was there with a glass of champagne in my hand.
Although, they don’t tend to do a ‘switch –on’ with an unknown celeb and few people singing for some rather turgid decorations.
Mentioning no names of course!

Is there competition between you and the other streets to create the best lights?
Not competition as such, but the decorations do become political for some.
I look at some of the other streets, where there’s lots of money spent but the lights aren’t challenging and they end up with something quite small.

What happens to the lights after Christmas?
The ones from Carnaby are quite iconic and get used for big after-show parties and musicals. Or we’ll keep bits and pieces from them.

And then you start the year preparing for the next Festive Season.
Yes. The whole point of putting up lights at Christmas is actually quite pagan. To remind ourselves that spring will come, the leaves will return and that light will regenerate.


Carnaby will also play host to a Barnardo’s vintage clothing store over the Christmas period to help raise vital funds for the charity. The ‘pop up’ store is being launched at 11/12 Carnaby Street on Saturday 1st December.
Dame Shirley Bassey has donated clothes, along with other Barnardo’s celebrity supporters including a coat  from Lord of the Rings actor Andy Serkis  (who played Gollum.)
The shop will also offer specially selected retro and vintage clothes, and a selection of records and books from the 70’s and 80’s.

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