Southwark Street bubble wrap lighting

Lighting up Bankside

A colour changing lighting scheme for Southwark Street was unveiled at the beginning of August 2008 by Councillors Adele Morris and Paul Noblet. Funded through the Section 106 associated with the Bankside Mix development and Land Securities, the project is unnamed to allow for interpretation and has already been likened to "Smarties", "Daleks" by one avid Dr Who fan and "Bubble wrap".

Why the scheme was developed

The project was designed, developed and installed by the council following on from the refurbishment of the two bridges on Southwark Street in 2006. The refurbishment works included cleaning, painting and pigeon proofing the structures as part of Cross River's Light at the End of the Tunnel programme to improve the quality of the public realm. Along side this the western bridge on Southwark Street was the chosen site for the successful and popular Ian Davenport "Poured Lines Southwark Street".

To create a link between the two structures but also to address the ongoing problem of unattractive illegal hoardings and fly posting, the idea of using feature light was conceived and the project developed to create a feature through the use of colour.

Just coloured spots?

In bright multi colour circular lights, the piece provides a fun and bright feature in the bridge environment which is one of the main gateways to Bankside from London Bridge. But there is an added extra, this scheme also acts as an informal clock with the lights slowly changing from a shower of multicolour to a wall of solid colour on the hour and half hour.

Energy efficiency

The lights were adapted by the supplier Aquila Design especially for this project to use colour changing LEDS. The lights which run both day and night run on less energy than it takes to power a kettle.