Good Directions

Disney has unveiled its new showcase store in Oxford Street, which became the biggest in Europe when it opened on 2 nd June. The centrepiece is a 28 foot high castle which sits in the middle of the store and is the first thing to be seen when walking in. Good Directions Ltd were asked to manufacture a specially designed clock specifically to suit the castle. The clock is in typical Disney fairytale style with beautiful ornate gold hands, yellow and gold chapters back lit with static white lights and the centre of the dial back illuminated with multi coloured changing LED lights. The clock is controlled by one of our clock resynchronisers, which will automatically restart the clock after any power failures and is pre-programmed to alter the clock at the summer and winter time changes for the next 20 years.   A launch party was held at the new store, where guests including Claudia Winkleman, Ben Fogle and Tom Hollander sampled the store with their families. Jonathan Storey...

Some weeks ago we were approached by Paul Cook, the proprietor of hair salon 'Hair Concepts' to design and manufacture a feature clock to go on his new premises in Banbury. The building was formerly a warehouse for a wine merchants, which Mr Cook has sympathetically transformed with his team of Architect, builder and shop fitters to recreate a period building typical of Banbury town centre. The clock is now a unique landmark above the shop, appropriately featuring hands in the shape of scissors and the words 'It is hair time' in place of traditional numerals around the clock face. With back illumination behind the dial the clock is highly visible both day and night. In keeping with traditional clocks the bezel surround, although manufactured by Good Directions in modern GRP material in a colour to match the rendering, it is designed to look like raised stonework around the clock. Using GRP instead of stone however means that it can be manufactured to suit the clock size...

  Good Directions was excited to receive an enquiry to manufacture a replica of Big Ben for Harrods prestigious London themed signature room, which was designed and recently installed by Prop Studios. Harrods Signature Room, home to their branded products and souvenirs, has been given a complete new look thanks to a range of iconic replicas of London buildings and British landmarks. The room has been themed with large-scale models of iconic British landmarks, which include Tower bridge, Big Ben and traditional telephone boxes. We were asked to manufacture four working clocks to exactly replicate a scaled version of Big Ben’s actual clock faces. The dials were produced in white opal acrylic with black numerals and gold detailing, with back illumination behind each face. Standing 2.4 metres tall the Big Ben makes for an impressive addition to the scheme.  Inside the clock feature our Total Control system is fitted to keep all the clocks acc...

The installation of a new clock in Bingham marked the culmination of a competition run by Toot Hill School on behalf of the town council.   The finished clock, designed by 12-year-old Mollie Grice, was unveiled at a special school assembly. Town Crier Peter Taunton announced the unveiling to pupils at the school before heading to Bingham Market Place to tell residents the clock would be installed. Mollie was one of five finalists short listed for the chance of having their design turned into a £10,000 community clock, funded by Nottinghamshire County Council’s Local Improvement Scheme.  Mollie said she was delighted with the finished clock and was very proud it would now be centre stage in her local town. “I think it looks brilliant and I’m really excited to let people know it was my design,” Mollie added. The numbers have been laid on using 24-carat golf leaf, a very durable, hard-wearing material. The numbers six and 12 have been replaced with the town council’s Buttercross...

At Good Directions Ltd we have a long standing close relationship with an Architectural Features manufacturer in Italy and we recently had the pleasure of one of their members of staff coming over for two weeks to gain work experience with us and improve his English language skills at the same time. A talented fabricator whom has worked for ItalG for the last four years, Diego was keen to learn English techniques from our own experienced in-house team of fabricators and engineers. At Good Directions we offer a range of copper rainwater systems with three standard styles of gutter in two sizes. These often need to have special angle corners made to suit a customers exact requirements or even made to suit curved or completely round buildings. Our in-house capabilities also means we have the expertise to manufacture bespoke items such as customer designed copper hopper heads. Keen and enthusiastic Diego was a delight to have working along side us and soon picked up...

It was an exciting moment as many people watched the replacement clock we manufactured for the Royal Borough of Windsor being lowered into the pavement in Thames Street, the exact spot where the original clock had been placed over fifty years previously. Lowering the pavement clock into the ground at Windsor The original clock was installed on May 15, 1950, by former Windsor Mayor and owner of Dysons, Sir Cyril Dyson. Sadly the clock was removed many years ago and its wareabouts is now unknown but the council wanted to re-instate an important part of Windsor's heritage and so approached us to manufacture a replacement. Grandaughter of original clock maker with the Mayor at the unveiling of the new clock Dyson's grandaughter Caroline Fox, whose father Geoffrey Dyson took over the family business until it closed in the 1980s, proudly watched as Mayor Cllr Catherine Bursnall, unveiled the new clock. Mrs Fox, from Maidenhead, said: "It is very emotional, I feel m...

Having manufactured a 3000mm skeleton style clock for a school in Baku we were approached by our agent to come up with design concepts for a new time feature to be the largest clock in Baku, situated in a prominent position on the main route through the city centre used by the President daily. The chosen building was a typical Soviet apartment block with no detail and little character, which was to be refurbished and embelished around the new clock. Having decided on a large 5000mm Skeleton style clock with LED illumination to both the chapters and hands we had to overcome the difficulties in manufacturing and exporting the clock for installation by our client. To ensure the dial was lightweight but strong it was decided to fabricate the chapters in Aluminium box section welded between rolled angle rings. The dial was formed in four pieces with rear bolt flanges for ease of transportation. The hands were waterjet cut in Aluminium with additional strengthening ribs down the ...