Light Console

A Light Console was first installed for Robert Nesbit’s revue Gangway in December 1941; this was the Light Console built for the Strand Demonstration theatre. Nigel Morgan claims that this was the first professional use of the Light Console, although it was preceded by the S’ Carlos installation, so it is perhaps more accurate to say that this was the first professional use in the UK.

The Light Console was installed at the extreme stage left end of the Grand Circle, where a few seats had been removed (see picture in Fred Bentham, Sixty Years of Light Work, pp.142).

The console from the demonstration theatre was replaced in 1949 by the 152 way console, which remained for 20 years according to Bentham (Sixty Years of Light Work, pp.141). This console is in the collection of the V&A Theatre Museum, London.

Nigel Morgan, Stage Lighting Design in Britain, p.81, footnote 164 and p.206.

Fred Bentham, Sixty Years of Light Work, pp.139-43.