About
The Strand Archive

Archive
This archive started life as a piece of A4 paper listing the Patt. Numbers I knew, so that students at the University of Exeter Department of Drama (where I am Technical Manager) didn't look too confused when I taught them. That was back in 1991. My interest in older Strand equipment has been growing since them. The archive has been online since 1997.

I am always amazed when any company appears to have lost interest in it's past, especially Strand, which has been such an innovator in it's lifetime.

Strand Electric's former headquarters at King Street, Covent Garden. (from Sixty Years of Light Work by Fred Bentham)

Strand (from The Strandbook and Strand website)
See also the Strand Chronology.
"In the heart of London's theatreland in 1914 a business was born - Strand Electric. Arthur Earnshaw and Phillip Sheridan were both London theatre electricians when they set up their company.
In 1929 Century Lighting opened for business in New York to serve Broadway.
Today, Strand Lighting, the union of these two companies, continues as the world's leading name in stage, television, motion picture, and architectural lighting and services.
In 1968, Strand Electric became Rank Strand.
Strand Lighting opened its first office in Canada in 1953 to serve the unique needs of the Canadian arts establishment.
Unique in the breadth of its operations, Strand Lighting now serves the world across three geographic regions. The European region, headquartered in London, has offices in Berlin, Moscow, Paris, Rome and serves all of Europe, the Middle East, Africa. The Americas region has its headquarters in Los Angeles and with offices in New York and Toronto serves the United States, Canada and Latin America. The Asia/Pacific region is serviced from Strand Lighting's office in Hong Kong. Each region works closely with its local network of dealers to ensure the most extensive distribution of products and services in the entertainment lighting industry."

The archive material
Most of the information on this site has come from Strand promotional leaflets which have been collected by myself and a number of other luminaire luminaries. Maurice Marshal at Stage Electrics has been the main contributor, although John Staplehurst (University of Exeter), Bruce MacRae (Macsound Electronics, Australia) and countless others have all added their own snippets of information. Thanks also to Bill Richards at Strand in London and Holly Sherman at Strand in Los Angeles.
It's important to point out that copyright in all of the material is held by Strand Lighting. If anyone at Strand has any problem with me using this material, please let me know. But I hope you don't.
It's also important to point out that I, the University of Exeter or Strand Lighting hold no responsibility for the accuracy of this information. It's provided for historical interest only.

How I can help
My knowledge of the inner workings of Strand equipment is limited. Please try your nearest Strand dealer in the first instance if you have problems with equipment. If that fails, feel free to post a question to the Message Board on this site. If that gets you nowhere, you can email jon@strandarchive.co.uk.

How you can help
If you have any material that I don't, or are able to add information that you've found useful about using some of the equipment, please let me know. If you can type up or scan the information and email it to me it's most useful. Email comments to jon@strandarchive.co.uk.

Happy lighting !

Jon Primrose (jon@strandarchive.co.uk)