Peter Nelson Lighting Designer

Peter Nelson (1928–2009) was an engineer before he was a lighting designer, and it shows in every piece he made. Born in Austria and educated in England, he spent the 1950s producing cast aluminium model aircraft for airlines like BOAC and TWA – precision work, beautifully finished. In 1961 he founded Architectural Lighting Ltd to manufacture his own lamp designs, and brought that same discipline with him.

Nelson worked almost entirely in aluminium. His FA floor lamps and TA table range are minimal in the truest sense: spun cylinder shades, slender stems, and cube switch blocks milled from solid metal. Sold through Habitat and Heal’s in the sixties, made in modest numbers, and now firmly collectable.

Every Peter Nelson piece we sell is checked, rewired where needed, and ready to plug in. You’ll find his lamps below — and more on the company he built over on our Architectural Lighting page.