Can't see your floor space but what about a floor lamp, or table with lamp on rather than ceiling light. We have 2 ceiling lights in hall. rarely used, and much prefer the lamp on the hall table as it gives much nicer atmosphere

There's no where to put a table unfortunately. Between the front door and bottom of the stairs we have a telephone seat. The oppositev wall is filled with a radiator. Then I want access to the understairs cupboard on the other wall. I'll try to attach a floor plan

Here's the plan. The dark area is bottom right

The door doesn't open into the kitchen as shown, but back into the hallway

I wouldn't let the smoke alarm stop you if that's what you wanted as it would be easily moved by a competent person.

thanks. do you know what rules there are for where a mains smoke detector should be? We had to have this installed when we did the work on the kitchen, so I thought it perhaps had to be at that end of the hallway. I'm not keen on a second pendant that might drew attention to the ugly smoke alarm

I don't think there any rules/regs that are that specific, sometimes which floor they must be on, but not specifically where on the ceiling, apart from sometimes manufacturers instructions about keeping certain distance from corners. At least that's my understanding but I'm not a pro. An electrician could advise and I suspect move it to the side, or along the hall between the existing and new lights.

thanks!