Joe Corré had been on the hunt for candlesticks but ended up with the entire building at 48 Berwick Street, London Soho.
“I needed these particular antique candle brackets for an art project, I had searched absolutely everywhere but I couldn't find them” explains Joe.
“Finally, I remembered the chandelier factory W. Sitch & Co. in Soho. It had been open since 1865. I wondered if it was even still there — I just expected it to be gone, you know, because it was such an incredible, odd place from such a different age." Joe was not only pleasantly surprised to discover that W. Sitch & Co. was still standing but also that it was for sale.”
"I walked in, and Laurence, the youngest son of the Sitch family, was working. There were chandeliers strung up from every inch of the ceiling. I asked if he had 'the little candle holder brackets I was looking for’ and he tipped out this big box of them onto the floor to rummage through and told me the family business was going into liquidation and the building was for sale” From that moment Joe's future was enlightened.
"Long story short, it happened very serendipitously. I'd become really tired of finding retail shops with affordable rent. Pioneering a new location for five years, getting people to know where you are, building up a trade, not really making much money. Then just about when you'd be getting your head above water and kind of doing all right, they'd want to do a rent review." Joe frustratingly explains, "They would triple the rent and in another five years' time, they were going to do it again. It hit me that I just couldn't do it anymore. It used to be the case that you could build up a mutually beneficial relationship with a Landlord, but that’s all gone now, they just want as much as they can possibly get out of you and they don’t seem to care if the shop only lasts 5 minutes and goes bust, because now they own all the shops on the street and they use the high rent on one shop to justify higher rents on all the rest of them. This has been the kiss of death for independent retail”
Joe took on the majority of the build and careful restoration himself — along with his dog Elvis, and enlisted the help of specialist craftspeople; electrical engineers and British artist Joe Rush (founder of the installation and performance art collective Mutoid Waste Company, known for their work at Glastonbury) who made the beautiful chandelier tree, on the lower ground floor, with twisted branches that undulate from floor to ceiling — and Iggy Wilkinson, to transform and repurpose the high quality brass treasure into sculptural shop fittings and display props - Laurence Sitch agreed to stay on and restore a lot of the lighting - all contributed to reignite The Light House.
"The process took longer because I didn't want anything leaving the place and going into storage for later use, unless it was complete," Joe explains. "I'd go down into the basement, and each chandelier would be missing something — a little piece here, a part there. Bits were scattered in piles, some in corners, others halfway across the room. I had to figure out what was genuinely broken and what were just the missing parts waiting to be reunited."
"Some lighting and pieces were so beautiful, even in their broken state, that I didn't care — I knew I'd use them somehow." he grins. "I got rid of quite a lot, but it didn't seem to even touch the sides”
"I became transfixed — increasingly fascinated, thanks to Laurence's stories and his vast knowledge and the education he gave me on the history of lighting — the artistry and the style and how it evolved over time," Joe beams. "The intricate details, what was considered fashionable, the craftsmanship behind each piece… the sheer quality, all of it captivated me."
Across the uniquely opulent-lit floors of The Light House, exquisite details await every kind of beholder. In the basement, Corré and Iggy intensified the atmosphere with adorned brass clothing rails and glowing embellishments. Throughout the other rooms, goddesses, satyrs, lionesses, and mermaids peer out from an eccentric array of wall-mounted lights — all part of the space's maximalist enlightenment.
The Light House will be a beacon of creativity and cultural importance.
Lux Me Ducet.
