Illuminated River to light up five more London bridges

The second part of London’s Illuminated River project will light up five more of the city’s bridges this spring.

The latest bridges include: Blackfriars, Waterloo, Westminster, Golden Jubilee Footbridges and Lambeth Bridge. In 2019, London, Cannon Street Railway, Southwark and Millennium Bridge were illuminated as part of the public art project.

The illuminated installation will be in place for ten years and when completed will be the longest such commission in the world.

The project has been conceived by American artist Leo Villareal in partnership with London architecture studio Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands.

According to the project’s organisers, the installations pay attention to “heritage, wildlife and the built environment to create something exceptional”. Each bridge has a different algorithm so that no pattern is ever repeated.

The bridges will be lit up from just before dusk to 2am every night and will use LED fittings in an attempt to conserve energy.

“The installations will transform the river by night, celebrating and highlighting the important role that the London bridges continue to play on the capital’s global identity and the important artery routes that link both parts of London,” the organisers add.

As it is free to view with no need to pre-book, they hope that the project will be a “much-needed ‘real life’ cultural experience in the city”.

The competition had over 105 entries from 20 different countries before it chose its winning team of Villareal and Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands.

The project is run by the Illuminated River Foundation, which is raising the funds for the project using private and philanthropic sources.