Alternative Street Art

Perhaps fed up with the publicity that Banksy is getting the Tate gallery in London has decided to put some of their art onto the streets of London, and you can call a number also displayed alongside the art that will give you more information on the piece; exactly like an audio tour in a gallery. Around 30 framed prints of some masterpieces are now in place around the streets of London and here are four I found completely by fluke today; two in Soho and two in Covent Garden. Its a very novel approach to getting people to see art they might perhaps not bother with but most people were walking past the pieces. I have a map of all the locations so I'll be doing another walk around London in the next few weeks to get some more prints.

More Early Morning London

Took a walk between London Bridge and Tower Bridge around 5 in the morning on this occasion. I had time to kill between leaving the Ministry of Sound and the first train to take me home (I didn't fancy riding the night bus, and had the camera on me anyway it).

I quite like seeing London when its quiet, I just need to get used to waking up early rather than staying out late and being confident enough to go out with the better camera rather than the little pocket thing I took these with.


Southwark bridge, nicely lit and I with no boats moving around at this time the river was dead calm so reflected perfectly.

HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge on its own this time.

The Mayor's Office

A final shot of Tower Bridge.

The Thames @ Night

On Saturday I went clubbing (weird electronic event at the The End) and left my camera in the bag I checked into the cloakroom. I left early and it was still dark so on the way home I chose to wander along the South Bank and get some shots as dawn broke. I also took the opportunity to get some pictures of Anthony Gormley's new installation currently getting a lot of rave reviews in the London press.

London Eye

Houses of Parliament

For those of you that don't recognise it this is part of the South Bank where skateboarders fail to land kick flips during the day.

This is one of Anthony's statues. There are basically around 30 of them all stealing the skyline and facing the gallery that houses his exhibition. This is one of a couple of pieces that sit at street level rather than on the top of buildings that the majority are doing.

St Pauls

A little closer this time

No embankment in the foreground this time.

Back down to the Houses of Parliament, the sun should be up soon.

London Eye

and again

A random statue

Another street level Gormley piece. I had to reach through some fencing to get this as this section is actually sealed off to the public.

South Bank with the Eye in the background

One of the many galleries on the South Bank. There are 3 statues here: the head of one popping above the roof on the left and the other two on the rooftops in the distance.

The north side of the Thames also has the statues. Hard to see on such a small photo but there are at least 3 up there.

The ones on the South bank were a little closer. I couldn't be bothered to cross back over the bridge to the North ones.

I think its a really clever thing to do. In a city where most people look to the ground making people stare upwards is really refreshing. Amsterdam has its fancy roof tops, Tokyo with its space issues builds upwards, and New York has its skyscrapers. Now London has a reason to take the skyline in.

The pieces are all identical and cast from Anthony's actual dimensions.





There aren't any in this one, I just liked the view of the wheel.

Barely visible here but the tall buildings have one each does the right hand tower of the two on the left.

This is further south. Every statue has an interrupted view to the gallery so they really did well to squeeze in the one on the left, next to the Chimney stack. Having walked 5 further steps it had gone behind the building in front, so the angle must have been really tight here, and yes there is another one on the big building behind it.

I might have to spend more time down here as I barely found half of the statues. I'll just do it at a more appropriate hour next time.

New Camera

With the money my parents gave me for Christmas I decided to buy myself a new camera, a Canon 400D DSLR in fact. Quite a step up from the little ixus that has seen me well for the last few years. Now I have another hobby and interest to keep me occupied in my free time. I had a spare day between Christmas and New Year so I thought I'd go into town to try it out.

St James Park, the place where a myriad of birds come to choke on bread thrown by tourists who should know better.


The London Eye, stealing the sky line from the Military Buildings in front of it.


I think some old person lives here, just not today as the flag isn't up!

To be honest I needed to tweak these in Photoshop; the skies were so grey that the pictures came out with a blueish hue to them, easily corrected however.

Its going to take me some time to get used to all the setting that this camera has. I'm so used to just pointing and clicking. But it will lead onto a worthwhile past time. Expect things to get better as I get used to it.