Newsflash: Lumiere London is back. And whether you know much about it or not, if you so much as stray into King’s Cross, Piccadilly, Southbank or Mayfair, you’re bound to trip into some lights fantastic.
2018’s Lumiere London is bigger, brighter and brasher (light up candy floss, anyone?) than previous years, and it remains one of the best free activities you can enjoy all year.
It’s also only on until Sunday 21st January so you’ll need to be snappy if you want in. All those electricity bills I expect.
Tempted? Download the Visit London app to plan your route and don’t forget to wrap up warm, it’s cold work enjoying good art.
Scroll for my pick of some of the loveliest Lumiere has to offer:
Nightlife by Lantern with Jo Pocock. A menagerie of lit up animals in Leicester Square was always going to be incredibly popular, so bang goes the aim of this ‘secret garden’ to be a space for ‘quiet reflection’. It’s lovely though, and who doesn’t love lovely?AETHER by the Architecture Social Club. The forecourt of the huge Waitrose in King’s Cross has never seen so much action. A beautiful soundscape accompanies the installation. Elbow your way into the centre for the best view.The Light of the Spirit (Chapter 2) by Patrice Warrener. Back at Westminster Abbey after two years and bigger and brighter than ever, the colourful imagination of digital artist Warrener has been let loose on the Great West Gate. A must see.LAMPOUNETTE by TILT. If, like me, you once bought a Tiny Tim Booklightso you could feel like a giant next to it, well now you get to feel like a Borrower in King’s Cross! Head to King’s Boulevard for your time to shine.Harmonic Portal by Chris Plant. St James’s Church is usually viewed from just one angle, Piccadilly street. Plant’s work takes you to the walls of the churchyard on Jermyn Street.DOT by Philippe Morvan. Warm. Pulsing. Dotty. Streams of light set to a surprisingly spine-tingly soundtrack composed especially for Lumiere by composers Solomon Grey.Love Motion by Rhys Coren. As if you needed an excuse to have a gander round the Royal Academy courtyard. A delightful animated film played on on the façade of Burlington House.Child Hood by Collectif Coin. The best way to end your Lumiere tour. The sight of Trafalgar Square packed with luminous balloons, lit up at intervals to a throb of sounds.Child Hood by Collectif Coin, re-imagined as an abstract landscape by me.
Kate on her travels 