Lumiere London 2016 turned a freezing January evening into a walk through flying fish, glowing gardens and an elephant in the West End. Before joining the crowds, I stopped at NY Fold on Charing Cross Road for a slice of pizza. It was a simple plan: find something good to eat, then follow the lights.
From the Roberts London archive. The original film was published on 16 January 2016. This account records that visit; the festival dates and restaurant details belong to 2016.
NY Fold: a Fabio slice before the lights
NY Fold was a relatively new arrival when I visited. Its name referred to the familiar New York way of eating a pizza slice: hold the crust, fold it and get on with your day. That suited an evening spent walking across central London.
The restaurant looked bright, clean and modern. There were tables for eating in, but I wanted something to take away. The menu offered individual slices, a deal on two slices and whole 16-inch pizzas, alongside other dishes. I chose the Fabio, topped with Spanish salami, green olives, cherry tomatoes and mozzarella. The menu described it as an award-winning pizza.
My slice went into the oven before being handed over. It looked excellent, with generous toppings and melted cheese, and the first bite lived up to that appearance. I folded it at the crust as instructed and headed towards the festival.
The practical detail that impressed me most was how little grease ended up on my hands. The underside felt floury and dry to the touch, rather like holding a loaf of bread, while the pizza itself was still soft and enjoyable. It was particularly good food for eating on the move. By the time I reached Trafalgar Square, the slice had disappeared.
Lumiere London 2016 in Trafalgar Square
I had expected a few interesting things to look at. The closed roads and gathering crowds quickly suggested something much bigger. Lumiere was a free festival, and my plan was to explore its West End installations on foot. There was another cluster at King’s Cross, but that was outside this evening’s walk.
In Trafalgar Square, the fountains had become part of Plastic Islands, an installation made with discarded plastic bottles. Light made the bottles look beautiful across the water, while the work drew attention to the much less beautiful subject of plastic waste in the ocean.
Nearby, the huge Centre Point letters were another familiar London sight in an unfamiliar position. Usually seen high above the streets, they had been brought down for the festival while their building was being refurbished. I also spotted a black taxi converted into an espresso bar: even on an evening devoted to light art, coffee was never far from my thoughts.
A luminous garden in Leicester Square
The walk continued past colourful neon dogs in a bank window and into Leicester Square. Here, Garden of Light filled the gardens with oversized glowing plants. The scale and colour made the square feel like a fantastical film set.
It was busy for more than one reason. The UK premiere of The Revenant was taking place, with crowds hoping for a glimpse of its stars. I decided against trying to push through. There was plenty to see without joining the premiere queue, and an official festival map helped me work out where to head next.
Flying sculptures above Piccadilly
Piccadilly delivered one of the evening’s most memorable scenes. Large illuminated creatures floated above the road, changing position in the wind. These were Les Luminéoles, by Porté par le vent. Looking more closely, I could see them being flown on lines, rather like enormous luminous kites.
The buildings gave them a wonderful backdrop. People stopped in the cold to watch; some held up phones, while others simply stood and stared. I had arrived without much idea of what to expect, and the size of this installation caught me completely by surprise. It was putting smiles on a great many faces.
An elephant near Regent Street, then BAFTA
The next surprise was the back end of an elephant. I walked around to find the other end and watched the animated animal emerge through an archway. Elephantastic made this familiar part of the West End feel delightfully strange.
With the streets closed to traffic, there was room to pause and enjoy the spectacle. I also passed Cordings, noting in the film that a visit there would feature in another vlog.
At 195 Piccadilly, the BAFTA building became a screen for images drawn from cinema and television. The projection spread colour across the façade, using the building itself as part of the performance.
Looking up at Oxford Circus
Oxford Circus offered another scene I had never expected to find in central London: people lying in the road, looking up. Suspended between the buildings was Janet Echelman’s 1.8 London, a vast net sculpture illuminated in changing colours.
I described the festival’s phone interaction in the film, although I did not try it myself. Watching the net above the junction was enough. The work changed the way everyone used the space beneath it; a place normally associated with crossing quickly had become somewhere to linger.
By now, the cold was making itself felt. A black Americano from Soho Grind provided a welcome pause before the final stretch around Soho and Carnaby.
Rooftop figures and Liberty windows
The later stops rewarded looking up as much as looking ahead. Illuminated human figures appeared on rooftops and above the street. Around Carnaby, I watched an animated walking figure and the LED stick people of Keyframes moving across a building. The latter was a particular hit with the crowd.
At Liberty, glowing dresses changed colour in the windows. They offered a quieter encounter after the enormous installations overhead. The walk finished with neon proverbs and a final look around Piccadilly.
Lumiere London 2016 was far more ambitious than I had imagined when I set off for a pizza. Its lasting appeal in this film is the sight of familiar streets being used differently: crowds taking their time, traffic giving way to art, and people looking up at buildings they might otherwise walk straight past.
Watch the original Lumiere London film
The full video follows the evening from NY Fold through the West End installations, including the coffee stop and the smaller works between the major spectacles.
For the festival’s wider programme and artist credits, see Artichoke’s Lumiere London 2016 archive. The event ran from 14 to 17 January 2016.
