In the Pink : A Colourful History of Plymouth’s First Lighthouse
Now that Smeaton’s Tower has officially reopened for Summer 2025, locals and visitors can once again climb to the top of this revered red-and-white-striped monument. Whilst learning about Plymouth’s rich maritime history – and how the trunk of an oak tree influenced the lighthouse’s curving profile - spectacular views of the Hoe and beyond can be enjoyed, hopefully in the sunshine!
Smeaton's Tower On Plymouth Hoe
To mark this reopening and to highlight artefacts of maritime lore on show in The Box, Linda Bell takes a look at the fascinating history of one of the predecessors to Smeaton’s Tower.
Artefacts of Maritime Lore at The Box, Plymouth, Courtesy The Box
Winstanley’s Lighthouse was the very first beacon constructed out at sea on the infamous Eddystone Rocks in 1698. Linda Bell’s interpretation of two very different paintings shows how one of Plymouth’s most iconic landmarks is part of a colourful history echoing through the ages; a tale of invention, catastrophe and enduring inspiration, continuing to influence artists working today in Britain’s Ocean City.
A Vision In Pink
"How it stands there, away off shore,
more lonely than the Eddystone lighthouse."
Moby-Dick, Chapter 14, ‘Nantucket’ by Herman Melville
Pink is not a colour often associated with the sea or connected to the idea of salvation. Yet Plymouth’s first offshore lighthouse, a beacon built on the Eddystone Rocks some 14 miles out at sea, was curiously constructed in a fantastical, pink burst shade.
Unknown Artist, 'Winstanley's Lighthouse', c. 1698, Oil on Canvas, Collection of Plymouth City Council, Mount Edgcumbe Estate
The painting ‘Winstanley’s Lighthouse’ is attributed to an unknown artist and portrays this colourful lighthouse, the camellia pink hue a striking haze rising above cool muted greys and steely blues. Part of Plymouth City Council’s Art Collection, the painting currently hangs across the Tamar in the Mount Edgcumbe estate.
A feat of technical engineering, this first lighthouse was named after its creator, Henry Winstanley (1644 - 1703). Known more of a showman than a seaman, Winstanley was born in 1644 in Saffron Walden in Essex.
Self-portrait by Henry Winstanley, c. 1680, Saffron Walden Museum, Courtesy of the Museum
A talented draftsman and entrepreneur, Winstanley started out as the Clerk of Works at Audley End House before turning his own home into a sort of early funfair tourist attraction. Complete with moving chairs (a true novelty at the time!) ‘Winstanley’s Wonders’ became a popular highlight in Essex. A little later Winstanley opened his ‘Waterworks’ near Hyde Park in London, a favourite destination where water fountains and spouts amazed visitors.
Winstanley was purportedly the owner of a couple of cargo ships wrecked by the Eddystone Rocks. In 1696 he decided to design and construct a lighthouse with the aim of saving precious lives and freight out at sea. Despite little support for his project, he came to Plymouth, managed to gather a team of workers willing to make the hours-long boat ride out to the treacherous Eddystone Rocks each day and started to work on his pink infused vision.
An engraving of Winstanley's Lighthouse, 1699, possibly depicting Winstanley fishing from the window, Courtesy Tracery Tales
Resting atop a 16-foot masonry base anchored to the reef with 12 iron stanchions, an octagonal tower of wood and stone began to take shape. Iron balustrades and glass panes surrounded the lantern – all topped with an ornate weathervane, Winstanley’s signature feature which also adorned the apexes of his earlier projects.
Kidnap and A King
However, the construction of Winstanley’s lighthouse was not without risk from difficult conditions and an extraordinary event. At this time England was at war with France, so Winstanley and his engineers were granted a ship for protection whilst they worked out at sea. However, one day in 1697 their guard did not turn up and a French ship loomed over the Rocks, taking Winstanley prisoner! Anticipating a generous reward, the privateer presented his prisoner to King Louis XIV. However, upon learning of Winstanley’s ingenious attempt to build an offshore lighthouse, the King reportedly declared:
“France is at war with England, not with humanity.”
Winstanley was subsequently released and returned to Plymouth to complete his lighthouse. A fortunate turn of events indeed!
A Light At Sea
Plymouth’s first offshore lighthouse was lit for the first time on November 14th, 1698. And what a sight this must have been to behold! A golden spark out at sea, safely guiding sailors away from the reef.
In the following years Winstanley made several modifications to his lighthouse, ensuring it could withstand the tough conditions of the channel. The painting we see hanging today in Mount Edgcumbe shows some of these later additions. Although the artist is ‘unknown’ the work is presumed to be by Winstanley himself as it is brimming with brilliant and intricate details.
Barely fitting within the dimensions of the canvas, Winstanley’s pink lighthouse fills the central axis of the painting. The tip of the ornate weathervane just skims the upper boundary of this fanciful scene; the sky can only just contain the height of this impressive tower! Rising defiantly from the rugged crags of the Eddystone Rocks, the lighthouse is surrounded by calm water and a galleon gracefully glides by on either side.
Bursting with ornamental confidence the candy-floss tone takes centre stage. The fantastical design of the lighthouse seems more akin to a fairground helter-skelter, or confectionery decoration, rather than a navigational tower in a stormy sea. It has a whimsical, almost theatrical appeal suited to a peculiar stage set or from an imaginative scene in a Yorgos Lanthimos film.
The architecture is charmingly rendered in the painting. The cupola dome glistens above the wrap-around balcony of stylised design. White corbels stand out against the pink of the gilded tower, like icing piped onto a cupcake. A tall, turret-like structure complete with hoardings flourishes above. The glass sides of the lantern are somehow not too dissimilar from a church steeple. A flag flutters as the elaborate weathervane - reminiscent of a dazzling chandelier - gleams with pride and care. Like Rapunzel’s Tower or a secret turret in a Disney franchise, Winstanley’s lighthouse mixes palatial qualities with defensive features borrowed from ancient castles. Imbued with a ‘fairy tale’ aura, the painting seems to depict a dream of an architectural and engineering marvel come true!
However, perhaps what is most striking is the unexpected use of bubble-gum pink. In the 17th century pink was not merely decorative - it held symbolic and cultural weight. Symbolising courtly devotion and feminine power, the colour pink was tied to Rococo exuberance, Jacobean fashion, and even horticultural history. The dianthus flowers, or ‘pinks’, were introduced to Britain in the 16th century and favoured for their vibrant, clove-scented blooms. Emblems of loyalty to Queen Elizabeth I, Winstanley’s lavish use of pink could be thought of as a display of regal regard. In this painting, pink becomes a beacon not just of whimsical delight, but of idealism, boldness and defiance.
The painting ‘Winstanley’s Lighthouse’ may have been a ‘feature film’ of its day, an impressive portrayal to celebrate the success of the construction and the lives saved out at sea near Plymouth. Indeed, Winstanley made several engraving editions of his lighthouse, such as this one where it is thought he is depicted in a cameo role, fishing from the first floor oriel window! Such reproductions would have allowed those who could not go out onto the water to see and understand the significance of Winstanley’s achievement. According to the inscription at the top of one such engraving, these prints were sold at his entertainment attractions, and he even displayed a model of Plymouth’s first offshore lighthouse at his London ‘Waterworks’.
Yet this painting at Mount Edgcumbe is more than a spectacle or an engineering success story. The work offers an optimistic, almost arcadian appeal. The water is smooth and clear, the sails of the galleons balloon in the breeze to suggest swift, safe journeys. We can almost imagine the successive salute of their cannons as they pass this maritime marvel. Gentle, stylised puffs of clouds present a soft, unthreatening sky which fills most of the space in the painting as though a divine presence from above. The compositional feature of a low-lying horizon line emphasises the height of the lighthouse whilst stressing the expansive sky and its transcendental appeal.
With the inscription ‘Glory Be To God’ emblazoned in Latin and English on the pink blushed side of the lighthouse, this painting is also Winstanley’s way of implying that his creation, his new wonder, is righteous and embues godliness.
The whole painting has a spiritual, divine like quality. The two upper platforms of the lighthouse - possibly cantilevers to balance and support the tower’s height - invite comparison to the shape of a cross. Meanwhile, the two galleons either side may recall the thieves crucified along with Christ. Such a parallel 17th century viewers could well have cottoned on to, with Christian images becoming widespread again at this time following the Reformation and Civil War.
Whilst the wreckers of Plymouth believed it was their God-given right to claim the spoils of any shipwrecks from the Eddystone – as they saw such tragedies as ‘Acts of God’ – here is the eccentric inventor using the power of paint to claim otherwise. Winstanley is saying that his flamboyant lighthouse, an advancement in maritime navigation, is in fact God’s Will.
With no shipwrecks at the Eddystone Rocks recorded around this time, Winstanley demonstrates how his sacrifice and dangerous work in arduous conditions were all in the Name and glory of God. This painting, if it is by Winstanley himself, persuades doubters and those who distrusted his project that this triumph over the forces of Nature could have only been ensured by the divine.
But the story of Plymouth’s first lighthouse does not end here!
More than three centuries later, abstract painter Steve Joy encountered the ‘Winstanley’s Lighthouse’ painting on a visit to Mount Edgcumbe. Born in Plymouth, Steve has exhibited and held professorships as head of art schools throughout Europe and the USA whilst maintaining an active presence in Britian’s Ocean City. (You can read an interview with him here and watch here). Steve was gripped by the tale of Winstanley - not just the fantastical, pink-burst details of the tower, but the eccentricity and sheer humanity of Winstanley’s pursuit.
The artist Steve Joy beside his painting, 'Winstanley's Light', at Velarde Gallery, Kingsbridge
Steve was inspired to revisit this aspect of Plymouth’s maritime history in his work and completed the abstract painting ‘Winstanley’s Light’ in 2023 - 4. He re-imagines Winstanley’s historic feat from a contemporary perspective and it is interesting to consider how this modern-day artwork continues to shine a light on Plymouth’s first lighthouse. Currently on debut exhibition, ‘Winstanley’s Light’ is presented as part of Steve’s solo show ‘Forbidden Colours’ at Velarde Gallery in Kingsbridge, Devon until 28th June.
A contemporary Echo
On first viewing, Steve’s painting may seem far removed from its predecessor. Instead of a maritime scene following pictographic rules of perspective, viewers are presented with a geometric interpretation of Winstanley’s octagonal invention. Gone are the carefully rendered clouds and ships; this pink portrayal merges sea and sky into a cloud of luminous colour, like a patchwork of assembled shapes.
But look more closely. Blocks of deep plum and bitumen brown compliment squares and oblongs of shimmering silvers, rich golds and opal pinks. These planes of colour form a vertical, columnar structure dominating the middle of the painting. This compositional format mirrors how the pink toned tower of the original ‘Winstanley’s Lighthouse’ painting leads the eye up the central axis towards the sky. Steve’s painting stands tall and narrow, commanding attention whilst echoing the sense of grandeur depicted in the earlier 16th century painting.
Subtle variations and details float within Steve’s layered textures. Sections of earthy brown stripes seem to climb the painting like ladders or engineering crossbeams rising through the lighthouse’s internal floors. Instead of portraying how the lighthouse would have looked, Steve pays homage to the architectural construction and inner workings of Winstanley’s creation.
These deep stripes of ochre may also reference the ornate design of Winstanley’s iconic weathervane and recall the rigging and ancient oak of the accompanying galleons depicted in the painting at Mount Edgcumbe. Indeed, occasional wispy lines of ink form and disappear, like ropes or pulleys anchoring the overall structure, or lines cast out into the deep.
Circles of gold and silver form a dance around the compositional blocks of colour, representative of mechanical elements or possibly candles, breaking up the rigid lines and offering specks of stylised detail recalling the Rococo feel of the original painting. Meanwhile, a stripy pink area, just off centre, adds surface interest to the work. Steve has physically adorned the canvas just how Winstanley added extravagant ornamentation to his lighthouse structure.
Once again, it is the pink that glows most insistently in this work: not flamboyant, but diffuse and ethereal. Steve’s shade is softer and somehow more nuanced than the flamingo pink of the Mount Edgcumbe painting. Shades of kunzite, cherry blossom and rose gold offer an atmospheric, softer feeling. Yet Steve’s use of pink in ‘Winstanley’s Light’ is possibly more portent, a compelling way to reference Winstanley’s fate.
The Tempest
"So, in a gale, the but half baffled Channel billows only recoil from the base of the Eddystone, triumphantly to overleap its summit with their scud."
Moby-Dick, Chapter 133, ‘The Chase – First Day’ by Herman Melville
Winstanley eventually installed a luxurious stateroom in his lighthouse and wished to be in his tower during the greatest of storms. In November 1703 Winstanley and his attendants were stationed out at the lighthouse to complete some repairs and his wish came true. A tempest struck. This was the most devastating storm on record to have ever battered the British Isles and it is believed that over 8,000 people perished.
William Daniell, ‘Eddystone Lighthouse, During a Storm’, 1825, Oil on canvas, 88 x 134 cm, The Box, Plymouth, Courtesy The Box.jpg
The painting ‘Eddystone Lighthouse, During a Storm’ by William Daniell at The Box is a rather haunting portrayal of another great storm which hammered Plymouth in November 1824. Raging for two days, this storm sunk 22 vessels and swept away more than 200,000 tonnes of stone from Plymouth’s new breakwater. Whipped up and rendered mid-cascade, the raging water swoops up and over the Eddystone lighthouse, swirls around the lantern and dwarfs the tower in dark, moody tones. The light of salvation continues to shine but seems vulnerable, contributing to the disturbing sense of threat and suspense. Exhibited at the RA two hundred years ago in 1825, Daniell’s painting perhaps offering some sense of the frightful conditions of the tempestuous storm of 1703.
Steve Joy, 'Winstanley's Light', 2023-4, Mixed media on canvas, 183 x 92 cm, Courtesy Velarde Gallery
In contrast, Steve’s effervescent pinks and regal palette appear detached from the stinging waves and howling winds of the storm. His shade of pink feels calm yet ominous - a twilight between hope and disaster. Neither decorative nor quite comforting in hue, this shiny-pink tone recalls the traditional nautical saying:
“Pink sky at night, sailor’s delight;
Pink sky at morning, sailor’s warning.”
The colour pink becomes both prophecy and memory in this contemporary interpretation of Plymouth’s first offshore lighthouse.
Once the tempest had cleared and it was safe to go out to the Eddystone Rocks on the morning of 27th November 1703, there was no sign of Winstanley, his men nor even any fragments of his famous lighthouse to be found. The inventor and his creation had been washed away without a trace in the perilous storm. The Eddystone Rocks were once again as dangerous as before they were conquered.
A pale zone, almost like a void, occupies part of the top-left quadrant in Steve’s luminous painting. An indication of clear skies after the storm perhaps? Or possibly an intentional negative space where the lighthouse’s summit might have stood? This spectral absence is a visual foretelling of knowing awareness. It is symbolic of Winstanley’s disappearance and the vanishing lighthouse, all swallowed by the storm. Steve’s painting becomes a meditation on how even the brightest lights may flicker out, leaving only stories and echoes behind.
Even the edges of the painting are deckled, slightly rough and irregular. Evoking the swollen pages of a book left open to the sea air – inflated by salt, brine and memory - a lighthouse’s log, a weather-beaten manuscript, a relic reclaimed from the surf of disaster. The blocks of gold-infused colour in the painting therefore take on a deeper meaning, more akin to monumental obelisks as a reminder of what once was.
Steve’s use of Japanese gold leaf, silver inks and shellac varnishes is itself a tribute to the decadent painting ‘Winstanley’s Lighthouse’ in Plymouth City Council’s Collection. Even at night time, Steve’s work glows under gentle candlelight, adding another layer of metaphor.
Steve Joy's 'Winstanley's Light' viewed with candelight
Through his choice of materials, the artist masterfully transports us to witness a glow not too dissimilar to Winstanley’s light shimmering over black water guiding ships to safety. Steve not only re-imagines the original ‘Winstanley’s Lighthouse’ painting as a contemporary, abstract image, but offers an experience, a fleeting sense of what it may have been like to physically experience Winstanley’s pink vision all those years ago. In our fragmented world of pixelated imagery, Steve invites us to look carefully and reveals the kind of illumination Winstanley aspired to: a beacon of hope pulsing with humanity.
Steve Joy, 'Winstanley's Light (small version)', 2022, Mixed Media on Canvas, Private Collection, Omaha USA, Courtesy the Artist
And from Plymouth to Kingsbridge and across the Atlantic. An earlier, smaller version of Steve’s painting is held in a private collection in the USA. Expressive details and shimmering textures on this sister work perhaps capture the Rococo style of the original lighthouse even more faithfully. This transatlantic resonance evokes the journey of the Mayflower and hints at how Plymouth’s maritime history and Winstanley’s influence have rippled across oceans and cultures, to a shore far beyond the Eddystone Rocks.
Even Herman Melville mentions the later Eddystone Lighthouse in ‘Moby-Dick’, demonstrating how Winstanley’s initial idea for an offshore lighthouse has captured imaginations as a point of cultural and artistic influence across centuries and disciplines.
Looking at Steve’s artwork is a little bit like looking at an Icon painting, or an illuminated manuscript, a pictorial telling of Winstanley’s heroic feat and disappearance. The work becomes a homage to this aspect of Plymouth’s history and a reminder of the engineering wonder of the subsequent lighthouses, highlighting the necessity for Douglass’ lighthouse out on the Eddystone Rocks today.
Douglass' Eddystone Lighthouse Today, Courtesy Trinity House
Past, Present and Pink
Using different pigments, materials and symbols, these two artists - anonymous and known - honour a vision of Plymouth’s first offshore lighthouse which was both brilliant and doomed. Their paintings tell a story that belongs to Plymouth, to the sea and our imaginations.
The original painting hanging in Mount Edgcumbe captures Winstanley’s vision as it was dreamed and built, recording a marvel that stood against the dangers of the sea. Meanwhile, Steve contemplates the tragic disappearance of Plymouth’s first lighthouse in the form of a luminous, abstract tribute. His painting is a mournful yet captivating monument to Winstanley and his tower.
Together, these two paintings form a dialogue across the centuries. As we climb the steps of Smeaton’s Tower this summer and ponder artifacts conserving Plymouth’s Maritime history in The Box, these two paintings indicate how the story of the first lighthouse out on the Eddystone Rocks is still very much alive. ‘Winstanley’s Lighthouse’ and ‘Winstanley’s Light’ provoke renewed conversation about invention, loss and the power of art to keep narratives alive - and even how the colour pink can carry history in its hue!
Both Steve’s contemporary work and the painting at Mount Edgcumbe deserve to be seen together at some point, installed side by side to convey the full breadth and significance of the story of the first offshore lighthouse of Britian’s Ocean City. Such an experience would enable the ‘light’ of Winstanley’s pink-blushed tower to shimmer again, as a reminder of the peril, poetry, and persistence at the heart of this maritime tale.
Explore This Story Further!
Smeaton’s Tower is one of Plymouth’s greatest and most iconic landmarks. Located on the Hoe, it recently re-opened in April for the summer season 2025.
‘Winstanley’s Lighthouse’ is a painting by an anonymous artist installed at the Mount Edgcumbe estate as part of Plymouth City Council’s Art Collection.
‘Winstanley’s Light’ is an abstract painting by Plymouth based artist Steve Joy. Its debut showing is at Velarde Gallery in Kingsbridge as part of the artist’s exhibition ‘Forbidden Colours’ which continues until 28 June.
William Daniell’s painting ‘Eddystone Lighthouse, During a Storm’ is a captivating painting at The Box and possibly gives us an indication of Winstanley’s final moments…
The Box has numerous artifacts recording and conserving Plymouth’s maritime history and connection to the sea. Perhaps there’s even more connections to this story still to be discovered?
The Mayflower Museum explores the narrative of the Mayflower in an inclusive and thoughtful way, highlighting the changing and enduring relationship between the UK and the United States.
