Handmade to order in BritainShips in 5–7 days

Urban Light Company
Wall lightsBedside wall lights →Hallway wall lights →
Pendant lights

Everything we make

Every light we make.

Both kinds, every finish, every timber. Each one built on solid wood turned so the grain still shows — no two quite identical, which is rather the point.

Type
Finish
Wood

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How to choose one

Start with the wood

The back plate is the part you will look at every day, so it is worth choosing first. Natural oak is the warmest and the most forgiving — it sits happily against white walls, against brick, and next to almost any existing woodwork. Beech is paler and tighter grained, and it disappears into a light room rather than announcing itself. Walnut is much darker and much more of a statement; it looks best where there is already some depth in the room, and it is the one that reads as expensive.

All three are solid timber, turned so the grain still shows, which means no two plates are quite identical. That is the point of buying one of these rather than a moulded fitting.

Then decide whether to match or mix

The arm and the bulb holder are chosen separately, which is the part most people do not expect. Matching them — brass on brass, copper on copper — gives you the quiet, traditional version that sits in a period hallway without arguing with anything.

Mixing them is the version people photograph. A brass arm with a copper holder, or a black arm with a brass holder, gives you something that reads as considered rather than catalogue. If you already have brass door furniture or copper taps in the room, picking up that metal in the holder alone is usually enough.

Nothing here is sprayed to match. Every part arrives in its own finish and is assembled as it is, so the brass is brass and the copper is copper — which is also why they will age the way those metals age, rather than chipping.

Where they work

A swan neck throws light forward and slightly down, which makes it a good deal more useful than it looks. Two either side of a bed give you something to read by without a bedside table. In a hallway or up a stairwell, a pair at intervals does more for the feel of the space than a single ceiling light ever will. Above a mirror it lights a face rather than the top of a head.

Worth measuring before you commit: it stands 28cm out from the wall, nearer 30–34cm once a bulb is in, and the back plate is 14cm across. That is generous for a wall light and part of why it throws light where you want it — but in a narrow hallway it is the number that decides whether you brush past it every day.

They take any E27 screw-fit bulb. The clear globe filament in the photographs suits them best, because the bulb is visible and may as well be worth looking at. Each light is supplied ready to wire and should be put up by a qualified electrician.

Still not sure? Tell me about the room and I’ll tell you what I’d do.