Illumination of City of London Buildings and Amenities

Legislative History: Adopted September 19, 2017 (By-law No. CPOL.-127-379 ); Amended July 24, 2018 (By-law No. CPOL.-127(a)-422); Amended October 5, 2021 (By-law No. CPOL.-127(b)-320); Amended September 26, 2023 (By-law No. CPOL.-127(c)-269); Amended June 3, 2025 (By-law No. CPOL.-127(d)-170)

Last Review Date: June 3, 2025

Service Area Lead: City Clerk

1. Policy Statement

1.1 This policy sets out the requirements for lighting City of London buildings and amenities for community events and awareness.

2. Definitions

Not applicable.

3. Applicability

3.1 This policy shall apply to any person or organization seeking the illumination of those City of London buildings and amenities which have multi-colour capable LED lighting.

4. The Policy

4.1 The use of multi-colour capable LED lighting installations on some City of London buildings and amenities provides a unique opportunity to display the official colour associated with a registered charitable or non-profit organization or a City of London event, in order to create awareness of and/or celebrate an organization or a City of London event.

The following guidelines shall be observed

Eligibility

a) Organizations making a lighting request must be a registered charitable or non-profit organization.

b) Registered charitable or non-profit organizations making a lighting request must have undertakings or philosophies that are in keeping with City of London policies or by-laws, and must not espouse hatred, violence, or racism.

c) City of London buildings and amenities shall not be illuminated for political, religious, or for-profit organizations or purposes.

Frequency and Timing

d) City of London buildings and amenities shall be illuminated no more than once per calendar year, per eligible organization, in order to maximize access to all eligible organizations. 

e) Registered charitable or non-profit organizations must submit an illumination request two weeks prior to the requested date. 

Lighting may be requested for up to one business week, or for the duration of the associated event, whichever is less; noting that conflicts between two or more eligible charitable or non-profit organizations would be settled in favour of the organization which first made its request, with City of London events taking precedence in all instances.

f) The lighting period will begin and end only on those business days that City Hall is open and staff resources are available to program the lighting.  All City of London buildings and amenities with multi-colour capable LED lighting installations shall be illuminated in a consistent manner to the extent that programming allows.

g) Registered charitable or non-profit organizations will be required to submit lighting requests on an annual basis.

Exemptions

h) The City of London shall not be restricted as to the number of times, or the period for which, lighting is approved;

i) The City of London may, at its discretion, illuminate each of its buildings or amenities with multi-colour capable LED lighting installations in a manner which is unique from one venue to the next.

j) Notwithstanding the above, the City of London buildings and amenities with multi-colour capable LED lighting installations shall be illuminated on the following occasions:

i. June 6: purple and green for Our London Family

ii. Remainder of June: rainbow for national Pride month (noting that individual lighting requests may also be accommodated)

iii. July 1: red and white for Canada Day

iv. September 30: orange for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (National Orange Shirt Day)

v. November 10 and 11: red for Remembrance Day

vi. Remainder of November: purple for Shine the Light on Woman Abuse

vii. December: red and green for the holidays

Administration of the Policy

k) The City Clerk will administer this policy.

l) In the event that a request appears to be in conflict with any of the criteria outlined in this policy the Mayor, in consultation with the City Manager’s Office, may use discretion to approve or deny an illumination request. The Mayor’s decision will be final.