Ealing Abbey is an English Benedictine monastery, founded in 1897 by monks from Downside Abbey. In 1899 the newly built church was registered for Catholic worship and, on the insistence of Cardinal Vaughan, St Benedict’s School was opened in 1902 to also serve the parish.  Originally called Ealing Priory, it became an independent priory in 1947 and was granted abbey status in 1955.  The SB monogram for St Benedict appears on panels of the nave roof and within rosettes on the panels of the aisle roof.

The Abbey gave Clarity the opportunity to quote for their lighting upgrade, so a visit was arranged to get to know the space and requirements.  Something simple and cost-effective was appropriate at this time so our suggestion was to replace the existing lighting tracks, change the halogen spot lighting to new LED heads with a few additional fixtures to add versatility.  Existing cabling and switching would be reused to save money.

Due to their age the lighting tracks were replaced.  This is good practice to ensure integrity and a clean electrical connection for the fixtures. The LED fittings were from the GDS Cygnus range. They are economical to run, compact and supplied with local LED drivers so that they can be connected to the existing 240V circuits avoiding costly changes to cabling. The units were supplied with integral ‘trim’ control so that the system could be balanced for brightness across the relevant areas. Most fixtures were supplied with adjustable beam angles (15°-60°) so that, during set-up, we could ensure appropriate coverage.

There are a wide range of fixtures in the Focus Series available as individual or track-lights to suit all positions where light is needed.  They give a 50,000-hour life cycle with 10-year lighting fixture warranty and 5-year driver warranty.  They are convection cooled (no fans) ensuring 100% silent operation and give up to 90% energy reduction over tungsten equivalents, ensuring considerably lower energy costs.  There is zero maintenance as there are no lamps or replaceable parts.  They are available in different colour temperatures and tuneable from white fade to warm and other options.  There are many beam angle options and can be black or white to suit the aesthetics of the building.  The photograph of the patterned nave roof shows how easily the black track blends into the panelling. 

In some positions where there had been a floodlight and smaller feature spot, Clarity put in short lengths of track to host a replacement LED flood light, a medium power unit and two smaller units to be focused on specific features around the alter.

Where there were six existing up & downlighters in the nave.  The housings were left in place but the internal lights were stripped out and replaced with LED fixtures. We supplied Puppis units mounted on a yoke, 4K units for downlight and 2K units for uplight. 

Surface spots in the transepts were replaced with LED equivalents to subtly light up features such as their statue of the Virgin Mary and Child.  The overall result is of a pleasing. warm and unobtrusive lighting scheme for the abbey.