About Robert Dudley Best

Robert Dudley Best inherited Best & Lloyd, one of the world’s foremost lighting manufacturers, founded in Birmingham in 1840. In the 1920s, while the company produced luxurious lighting for prestigious clients, including the Titanic and the Orient Express, Best saw an opportunity for innovation.

A pivotal moment came in 1925 when he visited the International Exhibition of Modern Design in Paris. Deeply influenced by the work of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, Best pursued formal studies in industrial design at schools in Paris and Düsseldorf, during which he befriended Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus.

By 1930, he introduced the Bestlite lamp, a functional, Bauhaus‑inspired task light stripped of ornament and deeply rooted in modernist principles. Initially used in garages and by the Royal Air Force for its adjustability and utility, the design soon caught the eye of architects. In 1931, the Architects’ Journal hailed it as Britain’s first Bauhaus design. The lamp’s iconic status was cemented when Sir Winston Churchill adopted it for his Whitehall desk during World War II.

A symbol of modern British design, the Bestlite continues to be produced, now under Danish stewardship by GUBI, and is included in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Design Museum in London.