On a cold Friday night in January, I stood with hundreds of tourists and normally grumpy Londoners in the middle of Piccadilly staring at flying fish-shaped creatures with a look of child-like joy on my face. All around me were expressions that mirrored mine. It was cold and it was crowded, but the mesmerising movements of the fish and the lilting music transfixed me and made me, just for a moment, forget any discomfort.
The brightly coloured fish called Les Luminéoles were originally commissioned for the Lyon Festival of Lights. They were featured at the Lumiere London event, a four-night festival of light installations all over London. The event was produced by the charity Artichoke, who has been running a biannual light festival in Durham since 2009. Installations were spread across King’s Cross, Mayfair, Piccadilly, Regent Street, St James’s, Trafalgar Square and Westminster.
I was in King’s Cross on Thursday, 14 January, and visited the installations in that area. I spent quite a bit of time watching the Circus of Light, which was projected on the side of the Granary Building. It was fun and bright, with elements reminiscent of the Monty Python animations. I would have stayed longer, but winter had arrived in force that week and I was freezing. The other installations, such as the binaryWaves, Light Graffiti and the Identified Flying Object, were fortunately on the way.
On Friday evening I started close to where I work in Victoria Street and visited Westminster Abbey, where the West front was transformed by Patrice Warrener’s Light of the Spirit which illuminated the statuettes of 20th century martyrs in brilliant colours. This was one of my favourite installations at the show. It was absolutely gorgeous and highlighted parts of the façade that are sometimes easy to miss in the splendour of such a beautiful building.
From there I walked up to Trafalgar Square where Centre Point and Plastic Islands were hosted, casting a harsh spotlight on the issue of plastic pollution, particularly the plastic clogging the North Pacific Ocean. And then on to Leicester Square which had been transformed into a spectacular garden of light, complete with flowers and glowing reeds. It was truly gorgeous.
From there I bobbed along in the current of foot traffic through Piccadilly Circus to the gorgeous fish creatures on Piccadilly, the floating people in St James’s Square, the little men chasing each other up and down Liberty House and the strange, interactive net sculpture in the middle of Oxford Circus.
To be honest, just being able to walk down the middle of Regent Street was a treat in this normally vehicle-clogged part of town. The whole evening was full of surprising enjoyment and so many smiles. The cold didn’t even bother.
I had wanted to visit the Mayfair area on Saturday evening, but the crowds got out of hand and tweets were urging people to stay away as tube platforms got overcrowded and crowd control became difficult, so I decided to forgo the installations I hadn’t seen and keep my fond memories intact.
I hope the show will be held again next year. I hope the areas will be chosen with large crowds in mind and I hope London will have another opportunity to smile and just enjoy a cold, dark winter night for a change.
