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Twenty-seven lion sculptures which have been dotted around central London until 24 September 2021.
Blog Archives
Scenes in the Square: Meet icons of cinema on Leicester Square’s art trail
Mar 14
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Pose with your favourite film character at this outdoor art exhibition, which runs until July 2023.
Follow the words of Virginia Woolf with ‘Around The Corner’ from Culture Mile
One of the ‘Around the Corner’ installations by St Paul’s Cathedral
If you’ve walked near St Paul’s Cathedral or the Barbican recently, you may have noticed the appearance of some gold word sculptures dotted around. These installations are part of Culture Mile’s new commission ‘Around The Corner’.
From the north side of the Millennium Bridge to Aldersgate Street by the Barbican tube station, a series of 12 installations quote a line from Virginia Woolf’s 1922 novel Jacob’s Room: “What are you going to meet if you turn this corner?” The piece has been created by architects Karsten Huneck and Bernd Truempler from KHBT.
Starting at St Peter’s Hill with the word ‘What’, you can follow the sentence along points of the walk, with each sculpture featuring information to help you find your way.
- ‘Around the Corner’ is on in the City of London until 30 April 2020 (update – it appears to have been extended due to the Covid-19 pandemic and is still on show in June 2020). For more information, visit the Culture Mile website.
Walking with The Snowman: Follow the festive art trail at London Bridge City
Dec 2
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A fun activity for families to find the painted Snowman sculptures inspired by The 12 Days of Christmas.
Conservation and colours as the Tusk Rhino Trail comes to the capital
Patrick Hughes’ The Rainbosceros in Covent Garden for The Rhino Trail
If you’ve been in central London recently, you may have noticed some pretty new pieces of street furniture. Twenty one rhino sculptures have been erected near iconic sights as part of the Tusk Rhino Trail. Each piece of art has been customised by international artists, to raise awareness of the rhinos’ plight. These magnificent creatures are under threat of extinction due to poaching and they must be protected.
Nick Gentry’s silver rhino at St Pancras
The capital-wide art installation has been curated by Chris Westbrook for the Tusk conservation charity. The sculptures will remain in situ until World Rhino Day on 22 September 2018. The following month, all 21 will be auctioned by Christie’s to raise money for the charity on 9 October.
Artists taking part include Ronnie Wood, Marc Quinn, Gavin Turk, Axel Scheffler, the Chapman Brothers, Charming Baker, Glen Baxter, Nick and Rob Carter, Eileen Cooper, Nancy Fouts, Nick Gentry, Zhang Huan, Patrick Hughes, David Mach, Gerry McGovern, Harland Miller, Mauro Perruchetti, Dave White, David Yarrow and Jonathan Yeo. Locations include Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, Guildhall, Marble Arch and St Paul’s. Why not download a map and bring your children rhino spotting.
- The Tusk Rhino Trail is on now until 22 September 2018. To download the trail map and find out more about the charity’s work, visit the Tusk Rhino Trail website.
For a guide to what else is on in London in September, click here.
This post is taking part in #CulturedKids, sharing cultural blog posts aimed at children. Thanks to Catherine at Cultured Wednesdays for getting me involved.
Nice to see ewe: Follow the Shaun In The City trails around London
Mar 29
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Art trails have proven hugely successful in recent years with elephants, phone boxes, Paddington Bears, Olympic Wenlocks and book benches among the customised sculptures popping up on London’s streets. Now just in time for the Easter holidays (a fun and free way to keep the kids entertained for a couple of hours), the Shaun In The City […]
Books About Town 2014 | Follow a literary trail around London
The Mary Poppins bench by Darel Seow is located outside St Paul’s Cathedral
Just like the streets of New York City are renowned as the location to thousands of films, the lanes and roads of London are home to many a literary creation. Some of English literature’s most memorable characters have walked the streets of our iconic city, such as Mary Poppins, Oliver Twist and Sherlock Holmes.
After the success of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic mascot trails around London, Wild In Art teamed up with the National Literacy Trust this summer to create an interactive street art project which promotes literacy. Over 50 benches, shaped as open books, were created by different artists depicting different stories and characters.
The benches have been dotted around London in four areas – Bloomsbury, the City Of London, Greenwich and the South Bank from Waterloo to Tower Bridge. After the exhibition ends on 15 September, the benches will then go up for sale at a public auction at the Southbank Centre on 7 October, with proceeds going to the Literacy Trust.
Earlier this week, I followed the City Trail from the Tower Of London to St Paul’s Cathedral, taking photos when possible (when people weren’t sitting on them!). Here’s a gallery of just some of the benches.
- Books About Town finishes on 15 September 2014. For more information and maps of the trails, check out the Books About Town website.
For Metro Girl’s blog on the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics mascot trail, click here.
Follow the Wenlocks | Olympic discovery trails around London
Aug 6
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Sculptures of the London 2012 mascots Wenlock and Mandeville have been dotted around the capital. The official mascots of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games have been one of the more recent controversies over the games, which, as we enter the second week of the Olympics, appear to be a huge success. While some have […]
London Calling | BT Artbox celebrates 25 years of Childline
‘Welcome to London’ by London & Partners by Tower Bridge
The red telephone box is one of Britain’s biggest icons – it’s up there with red London bus, Big Ben, Beefeaters, the Union Jack and Queen Elizabeth II herself. But for tourists arriving in London ahead of the Olympics, may find themselves slightly confused by the bizarre-looking phoneboxes dotted around the capital.
However, these multi-coloured and embellished street furniture haven’t been vandalised, they are simply part of the BT ArtBox project to mark the 25th anniversary of children’s charity Childline. It has invited artists and companies to customise their own replica box, which have been displayed around the city. But don’t get too carried away, these boxes don’t include a working phone should you need one, they’re simply for your viewing pleasure.
Lauren O’Farrell’s woolly ‘Dial M For Monster’ (LEFT) and Mandii Pope’s ‘Big Ben’… with the real Big Ben and Elizabeth Tower in the background
‘Shocking Conversation (front) and London Calling (back) outside City Hall
With the use of telephone boxes on the rapid decline since the popularity of mobile phones, I think the ArtBox project is an ingenious way to celebrate this iconic structure that draws so many tourists to pose inside them, as well as raise awareness and money for Childline. Following their display around the streets of London, they are to be auctioned off.
Before we find out about some of the Artboxes I have come across, a quick history about the real things. The first public telephone box was designed in 1920 for the Post Office and named K1 (Kiosk No.1), based on the same idea as the Police Telephone Boxes and Posts. However, the London Metropolitan Boroughs weren’t too impressed with the design and so the Fine Arts Commission judged a competition to find a more attractive and practical design. The winner was a London-born architect named Giles Gilbert Scott (who later designed Battersea Power Station) who came up with a classical style with a dome on top – inspired by Sir John Soane’s mausoleums at St Pancras Old Churchyard and Dulwich Picture Gallery.
So with the K2 design chosen, the Post Office chose to make it red so it easily to stand out to the public searching the streets for a payphone. Various different models followed, the K3, K4 and K5, but it is the K6 one which is most famous today.
Sir Giles designed the K6 model in 1935 to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V. The model was rolled out across the country with the amount of public phone boxes in Britain rising from 8,000 in 1930 to 19,000 in Silver Jubilee year, rising even further to 35,000 by the time World War II broke out.
Fred Butler’s ‘Mobile Phone’ on The Strand outside Charing Cross Station (left) and London & Partner’s ‘Welcome To London’ by Tower Bridge (right)
Today, with a majority of the boxes owned by BT and a lot less attractive, modern phone boxes instead and the widespread use of mobile phones, you will find the red telephone boxes aren’t in such demand as they used to be. The days of queuing for a phone box and huffing and puffing when you’re stuck in a line behind a right chatterbox appear to be long gone.
With the BT ArtBox auction having gone live on eBay on Monday 16th July (ending Sunday 22nd July), there isn’t much time left to check out the boxes on show.
Many tourists are likely to come across the two on a traffic island in Trafalgar Square – Mandii Pope’s ‘Big Ben’ and Lauren O’Farrell’s ‘Dial M For Monster’. A short hop away outside Charing Cross Station on The Strand is Fred Butler’s Mobile Phone, designed to look like a vintage mobile. With actual buttons, it creates nostalgia for a design already outdated by Smartphones.
Another popular tourist spot where the public will come across the ArtBoxes is in Potter’s Field Park – the green expanse outside City Hall on the south bank of the River Thames. Right beside the base of Tower Bridge is London & Partner’s ‘Welcome To London’ box, a white box covered in speech bubbles with different languages to represent the multi-cultural melting pot that is London.
‘London is drowning and I live by the River’: Peter Anderson’s ‘London Calling’ (left) and Aboud & Aboud’s ‘Shocking Conversation’ (right)
Inspiration: Giles Gilbert Scott looked to Sir John Soane’s design of the mausoleum at Dulwich Picture Gallery for his K2 design
Less than a minute’s walk to the East of City Hall are two ArtBoxes – Aboud & Aboud’s ‘Shocking Conversation’, which looks like an unfinished box which has been partially dunked in red paint. It has been described as the colour is ‘draining out’ of the box.
Next to it stands Peter Anderson’s ‘London Calling’, which features iconic images of Joe Strummer and The Clash from the 1980s.
While most of the ArtBoxes are in and around the City and West End, some are dotted a bit further out, including Westfield Stratford, Canary Wharf and Ravenscourt Park. Just outside the West End are two located in and outside the Royal Albert Hall.
The ArtBox outside, entitled ‘Ring-A-Royal Phonebox’ created by children’s TV presenter Timmy Mallett, has a royal theme, which is very apt considering the origins of the concert venue and the fact the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge live a short walk away in Kensington Palace. Each side of the box contains some of the most popular members of the Royal Family – the Queen herself, the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry. Kate Middleton is recognisable with her glossy brown hair and blue dress and is pushing a pram – significant to the pressure she is under to produce a royal heir. The Queen is accompanied by one of her beloved Corgis, while Prince Harry is pulling Usain Bolt’s classic pointing pose – so the ArtBox is both celebrating the Royal Jubilee, while making a nod to the Olympics.
- The BT Artbox exhibition is on around London from 18 June until 16 July 2012.
Timmy Mallett’s ‘Ring-A-Royal-Phonebox’ outside the Royal Albert Hall starring the Duchess of Cambridge, the Queen and Prince Harry
Read about another Giles Gilbert Scott creation, Battersea Power Station.
Or to learn about his grandfather Sir George Gilbert Scott’s creation, the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens.
For more of Metro Girl’s history blog posts, click here.
