SHOP LIGHTING

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 199, 20 May 1941, Page 10

SHOP LIGHTING

Curtailment Of Glow From Windows

STRICTER CONTROL NOW

A. stricter supervision of shop window lighting is being imposed this weekin Wellington, according to the Lighting Controller (.Mr. L. B. Hutton). Owners and occupiers ot’ such premises hhve been told what is expected o£ them, and wardens of the E.P.S. now have power to exercise a certain authority where grave breaches of the regulations are being made. It is particularly desired Hurt shopkeepers wilh windows looking out upon an open thoroughfare shall see that every 12 feet of frontage is not lighted by lamps of more than (50 watts, 'litis is fairly drastic when it considered that some shops use 500 watts in windows that size. The Lighting Controller maintains that when all shop windows arc lighted on the same basis the public will bo able to see the goods displayed almost as well as though there were a glare of light, and the glow emitted will be greatly minimized. The idea to be adopted 'by every shopkeeper is not only to bring his window lighting down to the 00 watts per 12 feet of frontage, but to shield it off from the street by a curtain, or pelmet, so that the rays will pot fall on the footpath or road. This is considered important, so important, indeed, that Mr. Hutton has 'been to the trouble of arranging special windows in the city to illustrate to others what is expected of them. One place so fitted is the city electrical department’s display shop in Bowen House, on the corner of Bowen Street and Lambton Quay, and the other is a window in Woolworth’s. Willis Street premises. All shopkeepers who are in doubt as to what they are to do this week should see either of these windows, and then apply the safeguards seen there to their own show windows.

The brilliance associated with the entrances to milk-bars is also to be curtailed by the same measure of light rule.