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Thompson St Albans
3 AA Rosettes, Michelin Guide
Dining & bar lighting, kitchen electrical
January shutdown, staged refurbishment
Director, KG Electrical
Thompson St Albans was one of Hertfordshire’s finest restaurants — a 3 AA Rosette, Michelin-recommended fine dining destination run by chef-patron Phil Thompson and his partner Marianne. Phil had previously held a Michelin star at Auberge du Lac at Brocket Hall. The food at Thompson’s was, by any measure, exceptional.
The building was another matter. A former row of pre-war cottages converted to restaurant use in the 1980s, it had accumulated decades of electrical decisions made by people with different priorities. The kitchen and front-of-house were functional — but neither was built for what Phil and Marianne were trying to do. That gap was the brief.
The dining rooms and bar were redesigned to give each space its own character while reading as a coherent whole. The bar carries smoked-glass pendant fittings hung at considered heights — enough warmth to invite you in, enough drama to set the tone. LED strip lighting washes the back-bar shelving, making the bottles glow without feeling like a nightclub. The same pendant family carries through into the dining room, tying the spaces together.
The staircase was given its own moment — recessed step lights inset into the risers, with a crystal chandelier above. Practical and considered at the same time. The WCs, often an afterthought in restaurant refurbishments, got the same attention: a single, precisely positioned downlight over a trough sink that makes even a cloakroom feel deliberate.
In a restaurant at this level, the lighting can’t just be pleasant. It has to make the food look right on the plate, make the room feel expensive without feeling stiff, and let the service team move around without ever bumping into a scheme that doesn’t work. All of that is a technical problem dressed as an aesthetic one.
The kitchen electrical was a completely different kind of problem. Phil had invested in serious professional equipment — a multi-zone induction pass, combi ovens, the full infrastructure of a 3-rosette operation. The existing electrical installation wasn’t built for any of it. We designed and installed everything from scratch to suit the new equipment layout and how Phil’s brigade actually works.
The pass lighting is worth explaining in detail. Rather than fixed overhead heat lamps — which sit in the sightlines of the kitchen team and get in the way during service — we installed retractable heat lamps that lower when needed and retract flush to the ceiling when not. Dishes go under the lamps to hold temperature before going to the floor. Between services, or when the pass needs to be clear, the lamps are gone. The brigade can communicate across the pass without ducking around fixed ironmongery.
It’s a small thing in one sense. In another, it’s the difference between a kitchen designed for the chef who runs it and one that makes life harder than it needs to be. Phil noticed. That’s the point.
The bar, the dining rooms, the staircase and the pass — the spaces as they were finished.
Thompson’s closed every January and used the shutdown for a staged refurbishment — one section at a time, planned carefully so nothing was out of action longer than necessary. We worked directly with Phil and Marianne throughout, which made a genuine difference. When the person commissioning the work is also the chef who’ll be running service behind the pass every night, the conversations are specific and honest. There’s no guessing what the kitchen actually needs.
Thompson St Albans has since closed, but the work done during those January refurbishments served the restaurant well through its remaining years. For a project like this, that’s what success looks like — an installation that worked so well it stopped being something anyone had to think about.
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