We are often asked about the colourful and beautifully crafted lamps that decorate the ceiling in the Shade Bar in Ham Yard Restaurant.

Not just beautiful, but also eco-friendly, the PET plastic bottle lamp is a key piece of the well-established Spanish designer Alvaro Catalán de Ocón.

The PET lamp revitalises the craft of weaving amongst indigenous communities around the world, finding a new use for discarded plastic bottles.

Starting in Colombia, Alvaro has since worked with groups in Japan, Ethiopia, Chile and Australia, enabling each community to bring their own unique weaving techniques and creative interpretations to these handmade lampshades.

Alvaro’s studio have committed to buying a fixed regular quantity of lamps from the artisans, which ensures them a regular income and activity.

These colourful lampshades create a long term purpose for single use plastic, bringing trash that would have gone to waste to an artistic dimension.

These eye-catching pieces are as contemporary now as they were when we first installed them.