Fortnum and Mason London, UK

Fortnum & Mason is an internationally renowned department in Piccadilly, London, established in 1707 by William Fortnum and Hugh Mason. The store’s fame is based primarily on the unique food halls which have served high quality and luxury delicacies since their opening although, in fact, only two of the several floors are devoted to food. During the Napoleonic War, the emporium supplied dried fruit, spices and other preserves to the British forces, and during the Victorian era it was frequently called upon to provide food for prestigious court functions. The store has held a number of Royal Warrants dating back over nearly 150 years and Queen Victoria sent shipments of Fortnum and Mason's concentrated beef tea to Florence Nightingale's hospitals during the Crimean War. Fortnum’s also invented the scotch egg and the hamper, and was the first to import Heinz Baked Beans and Kellogg’s Cornflakes. To celebrate three hundred years of trading the store has undergone a major yet sensitive refurbishment and the famous ground floor food halls (which have been fully refurbished in traditional style with crimson carpets and chandeliers) now extend via a sweeping atrium staircase, to the lower ground floor halls which house one of the most ambitiously foodie ‘markets’ in the world. Here, a lighter, airier atmosphere combines just enough of the homely rustic pantry feel, with the professional feel afforded by the sort of tiled, marble and granite counters and cabinets that have inhabited trusted grocers for centuries. As part of the refurbishment, a Delmatic lighting management system has been installed to provide flexible scene set switching and dimming of lighting throughout the six floors of retail areas, food outlets and destination restaurants. Sophisticated timing regimes suit the requirements of each retail department, and the system integrates with the specialist emergency lighting network. The complete network is managed and monitored through graphical head-end software.