Wrexham Council’s Retail Revival

Wrexham County Borough Council’s second stage of their Town Centre’s lighting upgrade saw an ambitious bid to revive the central shopping district to encourage night time use of the space to aid existing business’ as well as encourage new investment in the area.

Wrexham Council approached Vision in 2017 to produce a proposal of how to best drive investment into it’s Town Centre through re-lighting the entire area. The Town Centre architecturally is a mix of historic and modern buildings, and the lighting previously installed was very much utility based, getting towards the end of service and doing nothing to enhance the area.

Digital renders of uplighting buildings to enhance street scene

Vision suggested a decorative luminaire which would tie the area together, initially suggesting the contemporary Parc, but eventually suggesting the Darwin heritage lantern to tie in with the Tudor and Victorian architecture which features at various points in the vicinity.

Digital render showing guidance lines & uniform placement

The main focus of the brief was to raise lighting levels and improve light quality to encourage night time usage of the area whilst also picking out significant architecture with floodlighting. With a view that encouraging night time usage would allow the public to stay in the space longer and enjoy the town centre’s floodlit buildings, as well as encouraging bars and restaurants to the area, increasing business hours.