Sculpture trails and street art in London

-


It has been a while since my last street art tour of the capital so I was keen to revisit both Leake Street and Brick Lane. I had a spare afternoon so decided to try and tie these in with the Mayfair Sculpture Trail and a couple of other sculpture pieces I had become aware of.

Another hot summer's day in June. Another long run. Another marathon.  

My route was planned and I left Lewisham and headed west towards Waterloo along the Old Kent Road. This is a bit of a boring route, straight and busy with heavy traffic, but it was brightened up by bumping into Bluey (see above photo). If you don't know Bluey check her out on CBeebies.

Once there I made my way down into the Leake Street tunnel below the railway station and took in some of the new street art. The tunnel is always evolving with new pieces being painted on top of older ones. Here are some of the newest including new Perspicere.

Perspicere







I emerged from the tunnel and headed across the Thames on Westminster Bridge which was heaving with tourists. The only way to keep running is to take to the road which I did. The traffic is going so slowly it isn't dangerous.

Passing the Houses of Parliament I crossed St James' Park and skirted along Green Park to the station of the same name. This was the beginning of the Mayfair Sculpture Art Trail. The trail involves all the galleries in the area and also has 19 outdoor exhibits. 

The first gallery I found had a free map and I used this as my guide to visit each of the works by different artists.



















The trail complete, I made my way via The Strand to St Paul's Cathedral and Paternoster Square where there is a new work by Gillie and Marc who are also responsible for the Chimps trail I recently ran along.

'Wild Table of Love' is a tableau of bronze cast animals sitting around a table with plates of food. Two seats have been left empty for passers by to join in. There are twelve animals in total including a bear, rabbit, zebra, giraffe, koala, hippo, elephant, chimp, lion, gorilla, rhino and a dog.


It was fun to see and watch families enjoying the sculpture and scanning the QR code to find out more about how to help endangered animals.

After a coffee I continued east to Aldgate and another installation I had seen online. Snails on Stones consists of several anthropomorphic molluscs - in other words snail shells with human limbs protruding. There is also a pair of crossed legs visible beneath the rock on which they sit.




As I was in East London I thought I would check out any new street art in Shoreditch and particularly along Brick Lane. There were many new pieces to see.






















Perspicere




I emerged from the labyrinth of back streets and headed south back across Tower Bridge and along the river to Lewisham. Until next time London.

Popular posts from this blog

A bridge too far?

-
Image
A post on Facebook caught my attention. This is how many of my running adventures begin. Bex Band, founder of the women's adventure community Love Her Wild had walked across all the bridges in Greater London. Obviously this meant the Thames River. Less obviously there are 33 bridges in total starting at Hampton Court and ending at Tower Bridge. Of these, 26 have pedestrian access and she had crossed them all. 'Hmm, that would make a good run' was my first thought. Seed planted. A couple of months later on a mild, bright January day I travelled to Richmond. My first run was Richmond parkrun with my friend Vicki and her pal Nicola. 3.1 miles, no dear and a warming coffee later, I ran the nine miles to Hampton Court. Twelve miles done and I was ready to start my run! My goal was to cross each bridge when I came to it. That meant crossing Hampton Bridge and a sign denoting entrance to Surrey before turning and re-crossing it to begin. Yes, I am a pedant. Hampton Court Bridge I
Read more

Bushy, crewing and an Epping ultra

-
Image
What a weekend. It involved some running, some supporting runners and a bit more running. Saturday dawned wet and windy. 300 runners were assembling in Wendover ready for a 43 mile run into London. The fields were boggy, the paths were waterlogged and it was cold. Well, what do you expect on January 8th. These hardcore runners set off while I was driving from east to west London. My first stop was Bushy Park. This, as many will know, was the birthplace of parkrun. On 2nd October 2004 13 runners completed the first 5k with support from Paul  and Joanne Sinton-Hewitt. 17 years later it is a global phenomenon. This was my running pilgrimage. I have wanted to run Bushy since I ran my first parkrun in September 2012. This would be my 291st. A gentle rain was falling as I parked up by the Diana Fountain just across from Hampton Court. To stretch my legs - and kill some time, I was an hour early - I ran around the park exploring the tree lined avenues, gated gardens and open marshland.  Tiny
Read more

The Druid's Challenge

-
Image
This weekend I signed up to be a member of the support team on the Druid's Challenge ultra running event in the Chiltern Hills. My friend Matt was running the three day, 85 mile event. I was allocated to help with set up and checkpoint duties on the Saturday and Sweeper on Sunday. The Druid has been going for 12 years. It is organised by XNRG, a family business that 'help people challenge themselves and break through their mental and physical barriers, whilst providing peace of mind with expertly run events, going the extra mile for every competitor.' They also put on the Pilgrim Challenge and a number of charity events raising money for Humanity Direct. To get there for the 7 o'clock start I left London at 3:30am. The benefit of this was clear roads and the ability to drive through the centre of London with no Congestion Charge to pay. I arrived at the agreed meeting point outside the village of Watlington.  The first wave of competitors were walkers. They were brought
Read more