Pendants over bars, tables and islands

At a glance

Millimetres. Floor heights are from the finished floor; “above the top” is from the finished surface. Eye heights come from a US adult survey and are indicative.

Read this first: no standard, and the guides disagree

No British Standard, and no guide we could read, sets how high a pendant hangs over a bar, a table or an island, or how far apart they go. What exists are retail lighting guides, and they disagree. Two UK guides read on 5 November 2026 give 750 to 900 mm and 600 to 700 mm for the lowest point above a dining table; both give 700 to 800 mm above an island or worktop; one gives the spacing over an island as the length divided by the number of pendants plus one. We found no figure for bars in either. The Society of Light and Lighting’s guide to licensed premises (LG18, 2018) does cover bars and restaurants, but it is paywalled and we have not read it.

So this sheet does two things. It keeps the conventions in millimetres and says where they come from, and it checks them against something that can be measured, the height of people’s eyes, because that is what the lowest edge of a shade has to clear. Table, counter and bar heights are on our table heights and bar, counter and stool heights sheets, and a single large fitting over a table is on chandelier sizing and hanging heights.

• Conventions, not standards. Every figure marked “convention” is a rule of thumb from published guides. A lighting designer sets the final figures for your room.
• Derived figures are labelled. Where a number comes from our own arithmetic, the sheet says so and shows the working.
• Heights are from the finished floor unless the text says “above the top”, the finished surface of the table, counter or bar.

Height: check the lowest point against eyes

The lowest point of a shade, L on the first drawing, is where a pendant meets people. Two things decide how high it can be: whether it cuts the sightline between people, and whether the lamp glares. Eye heights come from the 2012 US Army anthropometric survey (ANSUR II), as tabulated by North Carolina State University’s ergonomics centre: standing eye height 1,421 mm (5th percentile women) to 1,753 mm (95th percentile men), and seated eye height 698 to 860 mm above the seat. That is a US military adult sample, not a UK public one, so treat the numbers as indicative.

The second drawing sets those eye heights against the seat and top ranges on our own sheets and the conventional lowest points.

What the eye check says, setting by setting

Over a dining table

With a seat 430 to 480 mm high the seated eye is 1,128 to 1,340 mm above the floor, which is about 398 to 580 mm above the top once the usual 280 to 300 mm seat-to-top gap is allowed for. A lowest point 750 to 900 mm above the top clears even the tallest seated eye by 155 mm or more. The 600 to 700 mm in one guide leaves the rim within about 20 mm of a tall diner’s eye level at its lower end, so people sit looking at the rim or the lamp.

Over a counter or island

Stools of 600 to 680 mm put the seated eye at 1,298 to 1,540 mm, and people standing at the counter have eyes at 1,421 to 1,753 mm. At a 925 mm top and 700 to 900 mm above it the lowest point is 1,625 to 1,825 mm, which sits inside the standing eye range for most of its length. Guides written for kitchens assume the people at the island are seated or busy; in a servery or at a standing counter they are looking across it.

Over a bar

We found no convention. A guest on a stool of 700 to 780 mm has eyes at 1,398 to 1,640 mm, a standing guest or bartender at 1,421 to 1,753 mm, and the sightline across the bar runs through that band. A shade whose rim is below 1,753 mm puts a tall person’s eyes level with it. Adding 100 mm of margin gives about 1,850 mm above the floor: 750 mm above a 1,100 mm top, 800 mm above a 1,050 mm top and 850 mm above a 1,000 mm top. That is a starting point to test, not a rule. Raise it where the staff floor is raised, and lower it only after a mock-up shows the lamp cannot be seen.

Drop and suspension length are worked as on the chandelier sheet: with a 3,000 mm ceiling and L at 1,850 mm, the drop D is 1,150 mm, and the cable or rod is D minus the height of the shade.

Diameter, spacing and end setback: the arithmetic

Spacing is arithmetic once you choose how the pendants sit in the length. Two methods are in use, and they give different end setbacks, so the drawing should say which one it uses. For a run of length L carrying n pendants:

• Equal bays: each pendant sits in the middle of an equal bay. Spacing s = L divided by n; end setback e = s divided by 2.
• End setback equals spacing: s = L divided by (n + 1); e = s. One UK retail guide gives this formula for islands.

Worked for a 2,400 mm bar or island and shades 300 mm across. The gap g is the spacing minus the shade diameter, and all spacings are to centres.

The drawings use the first method with three pendants: s 800, e 400, g 500. A UK retail guide gives 300 to 900 mm “between fixtures” by pendant size and about 600 to 800 mm along a dining table, without saying whether that is edge to edge or centre to centre, so we measure to centres and state it. For one pendant over a table the common diameter is 1/2 to 2/3 of the table width, as on the chandelier sheet; with several pendants each is smaller, and no guide we read gives a rule. Set the rhythm to the stool pitch or the banquette bays, so that no pendant sits over a joint in the top or hangs between two guests, and allow for ceiling height: the same guide says closer spacing under 2.4 m and wider above 3 m.

Glare: lamp, shade and dimming

Glare is a visual condition of discomfort or of reduced ability to see, caused by an unsuitable spread of brightness or by extreme contrasts (CIE e-ILV 17-22-098). The Health and Safety Executive’s Lighting at work (HSG38, 1997) separates disability glare, which impairs seeing without necessarily causing discomfort, from discomfort glare, which is discomfort without necessarily impairing vision (CIE e-ILV 17-22-102). A pendant in a bar usually causes the second.

The only openly published numbers we found for keeping a lamp out of the line of sight are in HSG38 (page 29, with Figure 18). They give an exclusion zone: bare lamps should not sit within an angle above the line of sight of 10 degrees for tubular fluorescent lamps seen from the side, 20 degrees for incandescent lamps with frosted glass and discharge lamps with a fluorescent coating, and 30 degrees for lamps that allow a direct view of the filament or arc tube. HSG38 says the idea does not apply to large sources such as an illuminated ceiling.

That guidance is for workplaces and was written in 1997, so here it is a yardstick, not a requirement. On the first drawing a seated guest sees the lowest lamp 35 degrees above the line of sight, outside a 30 degree zone. A standing guest at the same bar (eye at 1,640 mm, 150 mm in from the front edge) sees it 25 degrees up, inside it. The measures that follow from that are plain:

• Hide the lamp. A deeper or lower shade, or a lamp set back in it, keeps the source out of the angles people look from.
• Prefer a frosted or opal lamp to a clear filament lamp where the lamp will be seen: HSG38 gives 20 degrees against 30.
• Dim it. A visible lamp is much more comfortable at an evening level. Ask the maker for the lowest stable dimming level and check it on the real control chain (see dimming protocols).
• Watch the top. A polished stone, brass or glass bar top mirrors the lamp back at the guest. HSG38 calls reflections that mask what you are looking at veiling reflections.

We found no glare rating written for decorative pendants. Ask the lighting designer which method, if any, applies, and ask the maker for the lamp type, its output and, if available, the luminance of the visible lamp and shade.

Settle it on a mock-up, then write it on the drawing

The cheapest test of any figure is a full-size mock-up: a card or fabric shade at the drawn diameter, hung at the drawn height over a length of the real top, with the real lamp in it if possible. Then:

• Look at it from seated and standing eye positions, with the tallest and shortest people on the project team.
• Look across the bar or table at a person on the other side: does the shade cut their face?
• Dim the lamp to the evening scene and look again, then photograph it from each eye position for the record.
• Fix the heights from the finished top, since stone and timber tops differ in thickness (the worked example is on table heights), and make the cable or rod adjustable so the height can be set after the top is installed.

Write the approved heights on the shop drawing with their datums, as the specification wording below does.

Lowest point of each pendant (underside of the shade or lamp, whichever is lower) [1,850] mm above finished floor level on the guest side, [750] mm above the finished top at [1,100] mm. Datum: the floor the person stands on; state the staff-side level if it differs by [ ] mm. Cable or rod adjustable by [ ] mm so the height can be set against the installed top.

[3] pendants along the [2,400] mm length, spacing [800] mm to centres, end setback [400] mm from the end of the finished top ([equal bays / end setback equals spacing]). Shade diameter [300] mm, clear gap [500] mm. Set out from the [stool / booth] pitch of [ ] mm; no pendant over a joint in the top.

Lamp [opal / frosted, not clear filament], not seen directly from seated eye height [1,500] mm or standing eye height [1,640] mm at the guest positions on drawing [ ]. Dimmable to [ ] per cent without flicker or visible colour shift on the [DALI / phase-cut] control. Maker to supply lamp type, output and photometric data.

One full-size mock-up of [a pendant] at the drawn height over a length of the finished [top / sample], viewed and photographed from seated and standing eye positions and across the [bar / table], dimmed to the evening scene, and approved in writing before production. Record approved heights and spacings with their datums on the shop drawing.

Standards and sources

• HSE, Lighting at work (HSG38), second edition 1997, web version: read 5 Nov 2026: paragraphs 25, 94 and 95, exclusion zone table and Figure 18 (page 29), glossary. Workplace guidance.
• CIE S 017:2020 International Lighting Vocabulary (e-ILV): entries 17-22-098 and 17-22-102, read 5 Nov 2026.
• SLL Lighting Guide LG18, Lighting for licensed premises (2018): listing and contents read only; paywalled. Covers bars and restaurants.
• NC State Ergonomics Center summary of the 2012 US Army survey (ANSUR II): eye heights; US adults, indicative.
• British Standards and UK retail guides: no British Standard for pendant height, spacing or glare over bars, tables or islands was identified; the conventions are from retail guides read 5 Nov 2026, which are not authorities and disagree.

Questions we are asked

How high should pendants hang above a bar?

No standard or guide we read gives a figure for bars. Checked against eye heights, the lowest edge of the shade needs to be above a tall standing person’s eyes, which is about 1,850 mm above the floor with a 100 mm margin, or 750 to 850 mm above a bar top of 1,100 to 1,000 mm. That is a derived starting point to test on a mock-up, not a rule.

How far apart should pendant lights be over an island or bar?

It is arithmetic once you choose the method. With equal bays, spacing is the length divided by the number of pendants and the end setback is half of that. With end setback equal to spacing, spacing is the length divided by the number of pendants plus one, a formula one UK guide gives for islands. State on the drawing which one you used, and measure to centres.

What size pendant goes over a dining table?

The common convention for one pendant is a diameter of half to two-thirds of the table’s width, as on our chandelier sizing sheet. For several pendants over a long table each is smaller; we found no rule for how much smaller, so decide it on a mock-up. Hang the lowest point 750 to 900 mm above the top, which clears seated eyes; one UK guide gives 600 to 700 mm, which comes close to a tall diner’s eye level.

How do I stop pendants glaring into guests’ eyes?

Keep the lamp out of the angles people look from: a deeper or lower shade, a lamp set back in it, a frosted or opal lamp rather than a clear filament, and a dimming range that goes low enough for the evening. HSE guidance (HSG38) gives exclusion angles of 20 and 30 degrees above the line of sight for frosted and clear filament lamps. It is workplace guidance and a yardstick only. Test on a mock-up, dimmed, from seated and standing eye height.

Is there a standard for pendant height or glare over a bar?

None that we could identify. The conventions come from retail lighting guides and they differ. The Society of Light and Lighting’s guide to licensed premises (LG18) covers bars and restaurants but is paywalled and we have not read it; a lighting designer will have it. We also found no glare rating written for decorative pendants.