Lumiere London - Festival of Light hits the capital Part One

January is a cold and dark month. Everyone is on a come down from Christmas so it can be quite depressing. After our visit to Christmas at Kew lights in the dark can be so  uplifting so we were very excited to learn that London was shutting some of it's streets and putting on a huge light show. OH and I downloaded our map and headed off into the night to experience the show that was in and around the West End.

 First up is 'Sanctuary' by Sarah Blood which was a range of bird boxes accompanied by a cacophony of bird song. Quite magical in the dark streets of London. 

Then over to Grosvenor Square which was alive with light featuring four installations. This is 'Lightbench' by Bernd Spieckler. It looked as if it should have been in a sci-fi movie. OH tried it out and said it was very cold to sit on thought that could have been the temperature as it was absolutely freezing 

 'Brothers and sisters' by Ron Haselden featured a figure who looked a little like me without my glasses but with my signature curly hair! 

Here is a close up

 Tucked away in a corner of Grosvenor Square was the most amazing sight of the night but sadly my photo is pretty poor as it was difficult to photograph, especially with the crowds.

 Here is a close up. It's 'Aquarium' by Benedetto Bufalino which does what it says on the tin though it's an aquarium in a phone box. I could have sat watching it for hours. 

 We then headed up to Regents Street which had been closed off for the nights. It's quite surreal walking down one of the busiest nights in London in the dark. And as we were early it wasn't too busy.

We luckily saw 'Keyframes' by Grouples LAPS / Thomas Veyssiere in action. To be honest we didn't realise it was a moving piece but I overheard someone saying it was 'starting in 5 minutes' so we settled down to watch a jaw dropping show of moving figures. 

 As well as movement there was also music which gave the show such dynamism and seemed to indicate a fugitive, acrobats, a game of tag and space invaders. It's very hard to describe but it was awesome and left me smiling as we walked onto the next installation. 

 The window of Libertys are always a joy and these were no exception. 'Dresses' by Tae gon KIM which appeared to hang in the night and subtly changed colour. 

 One of the highlights of the festival was meant to be this elephant stomping down Regent's Street. The noise was quite eerie as you could hear this elephant long before you could see it. However when it finally came into view I must admit it was a bit of a let down as we were expecting it to be much, much bigger.  

 The highlight of the evening for me was 'Les Lumineoles' by Porte par le Vent' which were giant kites gliding above the night sky on Piccadilly

Here you can see it being worked from the ground. 

 '195 Piccadilly' by NOVAK

 Leicester Square was turned into a 'Garden of Light' by TILT. We were spoilt by the garden at Christmas at Kew which made this a bit of a let down. 

After a pit stop for a bit to eat and a chance to warm up we headed down to Trafalgar Square for 'Plastic Islands' by Luzinterruptus which I'm afraid was a let down following on from 'Les Lumineoles'

And we ended up outside Coutts (the Bank) on the Strand to see 'Neon Dogs' by Deepa Mann-Kier

By the end of the evening we were frozen to the bone but it was a great evening. We will be walking part two this weekend which is over in Kings Cross so will post more soon.