Illuminated River: The Final Five Bridges

The final five bridges of the Illuminated River have come to life - discover them with us.

The first four Illuminated River bridges – London, Cannon Street, Southwark and Millennium – made their debut in 2019. Since their launch the four bridges have been creating an evocative display every evening from dusk until 2.00am.

Now the next five bridges are joining in

To book your place visit our Eventbrite page

Making the world’s longest public art commission. Although a public artwork, it has been paid for by private, philanthropic sources - an incredible gift to London.

This April Blackfriars Road, Waterloo, Golden Jubilee, Westminster and Lambeth Bridges were illuminated by New York-based artist Leo Villareal’s subtle display of slowly moving light sequences.

Villareal’s vision is to create a unified series of evocative lighting sequences across the bridges, reflecting their cultural and historical contexts. His approach draws on the spirit of Impressionist and English Romantic artists such as Monet and Whistler, who when painting London’s river and its bridges often worked, as Villareal does in the open air.

Along the walk your Guide will tell you about the artist and the engineering involved in the project along with the stories of the bridges, people and other places along the way. The Guides leading these new walks are accredited by the 'Two Cities' - London and Westminster, as the newly illuminated bridges cross the boundary! You will meet us to start the walk in the City of London and we'll end in the City of Westminster.

Thanks to support from the Illuminated River Foundation, the walks are free for a limited period.

We try to make our walks as inclusive and accessible as possible and use lifts to access the riverside path.

Safety:

• The safety of our group members and Guides is paramount and we have small group numbers to help manage this. There are very limited spaces (6 in total), in accordance with UK government rules, and places MUST be booked in advance. We are unable to accept onto our tours anyone who has not booked a ticket.
• Our guides follow the Institute of Tourist Guiding (ITG) Covid19 Guidance for Tour Guiding
• Unless you are exempt, please have a face mask/covering.
• Please bring your own hand sanitiser.
• Please observe social distancing.
• Your booking contact details will be used for Track and Trace purposes if required
• If, on the day, you feel at all unwell please cancel your place.

You can also join us on a walk on Friday evenings to see the first four bridges

Images: Guy Fairbank