Lightbulb Moment: 90 years of Anglepoise

We look back over nine decades of the iconic lamp

A world-famous design classic was invented in the back-garden workshop of a house in Bath in 1932. Car engineer George Carwardine invented a remarkable lamp that could be positioned with the lightest touch yet maintain its position once released, with unprecedented freedom of movement and perfect balance thanks to his new four-spring crank-and-lever mechanism. Nine decades later, Anglepoise lamps have achieved global iconic status.

Back in the 1930s, when George could not keep up with demand for his new lamp, he teamed up with spring-maker Herbert Terry & Sons, licensing the design and registering the name Anglepoise, and the four-spring model went into volume production.

George and the designers at Terry’s worked together to refine the design, and in 1935 the three-spring Original 1227 model was launched.

Considered the archetypal

Anglepoise lamp, the same design is produced today (pictured right).

Working with Terry’s for the rest of his life, George developed variations of the lamp, including for operating theatres and military aircraft.

The Terry family has been continually producing the lamps ever since.

Simon Terry, managing director of Portsmouth-based Anglepoise, says of the lamp: “Its form and function have become iconic benchmarks. When it was launched, the world had never seen anything quite like it, and this particular design inspired generations of users including The Queen, Roald Dahl and Lloyd George. It has come to represent something quintessentially British.” Esteemed product designer

Sir Kenneth Grange became Anglepoise design director in 2003. “The Anglepoise is a minor miracle of balance,” he says, “a quality in life we do not value as we should.” Today, as well as desk and table lamps, Anglepoise makes floor lamps, wall lights and ceiling lights including pendants, in sizes from Mini to Giant and in myriad colours, as well as offering a lifetime guarantee. Anglepoise recently collaborated with the National Trust on a woodlandinspired sage green collection of the Original 1227 lamps, and will donate at least £15,000 to the conservation charity. anglepoise.com