The Herne Bay Clock Tower was the first freestanding tidal clock tower in the world. Built in 1839 on the Herne Bay seafront in Kent it has over its 176-year history become a much-loved landmark of the town.
Funding by the Heritage Lottery allowed for a complete refurbishment of the Clock Tower, and the installation of a modern lighting control solution formed an important element of the design brief. Pharos partner Architainment distributed Philips Colorblast Powercores and other RGB units across all four sections of the tower, and all are managed and controlled from a Pharos TPC Touch Panel Controller.
The Pharos Designer software permits a state of the art tidal-linked colour-changing scheme through a scripted program which utilises a comprehensive database of tidal information. At low tide the top section is illuminated in red, subtly changing to green at high tide.
For most of the year white light is used to exhibit the stone to best bring its unique architectural features to the fore, while the bottom three sections can be illuminated in any colour. This was finely demonstrated on March 26th this year when the Clock Tower was lit up in purple in tandem with other famous worldwide monuments to mark National Epilepsy Day.
