Page 168 - Guildhall School Coverage Book 2020/21

15 April 2021

Visionary Illuminated River artwork launches across five more

Thames bridges

Above: Illuminated River, from London Bridge to Lambeth Bridge © Jason Hawkes

▪ The lighting of Blackfriars Road, Waterloo, Golden Jubilee, Westminster and Lambeth
Bridges extends the transformation of central London
▪ This visionary public installation celebrates London as a uniquely creative and
innovative world city
▪ At 3.2 miles it is the longest public art commission in the world, on display every
evening from dusk until 2.00am
▪ 90 million people a year will see the nine-bridge artwork, which now spans from
London Bridge in the east to Lambeth Bridge in the west
▪ The artwork by New York-based artist Leo Villareal with award-winning London
architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands was chosen by an international jury in an
open competition in 2016
▪ Funded by philanthropists with the support of the Mayor of London, the project’s
funders include Arcadia – a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, the
Blavatnik Family Foundation, the Reuben Foundation and the Rothschild Foundation

The Illuminated River artwork was officially switched on this evening on Blackfriars Road,
Waterloo, Golden Jubilee, Westminster and Lambeth Bridges. The unified, subtly moving
installation by US artist Leo Villareal now extends across nine Thames bridges, from
London to Lambeth, to form the longest public art commission in the world.