12 March 2022: Public art & memorials, London Bridge to Canary Wharf

Event led by John T.
Attendance: 17 men.
Distance: 7.1 miles (11.4 km).
Time: start 11:09, end 16:40, lunch 36 minutes.
Speed: trawling (lots of pauses to look at art), 1.44mph (2.43kmph)
Terrain: pavement.
Elevation: start 5m, high 32m, low -1.6m (!!)(but no wet feet).
Weather: sunny intervals, moderate breeze S 16mph, 12°C.
Number of sewage works: 0. Bonus: number of construction works for new sewage pipe: 1.
Number of churches: 2.
Number of golf courses: 0.
Target number of artworks: target of 111, actual of pffft.

This event was a point-to-point walk of 7.1 miles (11.4 km) from London Bridge railway station E to Canary Wharf, in the traditionally crazy route of infinite zig-zags to find as much public art as possible.

From London Bridge, the route headed S through Kings College, then N to the Thames, E via More London and City Hall to Tower Bridge, N to the Memorial Gardens, then E broadly along the northern Thames embankment (where possible), Wapping High Street then into Canary Wharf’s Canada Square.

As with prior art walks, we are very thankful for our walk leader John’s depth of research and re-testing of this walk to hunt down the works of art and to procure some backstory for those works which warranted it. This walk was John’s fifth art walk for Herts GOC. John has kindly published the list of artworks and the notes for the artworks for this walk.

Having told us that this walk was not a guided tour of London’s artworks, John did a very good impression of somebody giving a guided tour of London’s artworks, complete with a portable speaker. The artworks on this route demanded explanation and context to understand and appreciate them, in large part because of the deep layer of incestuous politics (the Bankster-Politico Complex?) that underwove the existence of the City and Canary Wharf. The result was that we ran out of time (and lighting) to see many other artworks at Canary Wharf. And thus was seeded the idea of a future art walk to complete our inspection of this walk’s artworks, then to rummage around Greenwich. To be confirmed!

List of artworks pictured in this event report:

“Sir Simon Milton” by Philip Jackson, 2016, Outside One Tower Bridge.
“The Building Worker” by Alan Wilson, 2006, Tower Hill.
“Girl with Dolphin” by David Wynne, 1973, Thames riverside between Tower Bridge (N) & entrance to St Katherine’s Dock.
“Timepiece” by Wendy Taylor, 1973, entrance to St Katherine’s Docks.
“Dove of Peace”, a memorial to the Civilians of East London, 2nd World War 1939–1945, by Wendy Taylor, 2008, Hermitage Riverside Memorial Garden.
“Restless Dream” by Zadok Ben-David, 1992, Western portal of Limehouse Link tunnel.

Churches: