Lumiere

krappyrubsnif

Did anyone go to this?  Disappointing, I thought,.

miss annie

I love it! So far I've seen... the giant fish, BAFTA, and the elephant in Piccadilly, the garden of light in Leicester Square, the neon dogs in the Strand, the dress at Liberty, stick people and the enormous, brilliant jellyfish thing in Oxford Circus and going to see Westminster Abbey and the aquarium in a phone box tomorrow. I wish it was here all the time.

NorthNineteen

I enjoyed it.  It's just some light, it's not going to be mind-blowing and I was also expecting it to be busy.  I swear in London you could put a shit on a pedestal and there will be crowds instagramming it...but anyway it was worth doing in my opinion.<div><br></div><div>The walk from Green Park to Oxford Circus via Picc Circus was my favourite, having the roads shut was so nice and installations were big so could see plenty.  I went to Kings Cross on Thurs (quite late) and it was rammed, dread to think what it would have been like today or last night.</div>

miss annie

I work in Piccadilly and they rehearsed everything late on Wednesday night, it was great to stand and watch in the rain with no one else around. It's been getting busier every evening, popped into work today to collect my tools and Piccadilly was absolutely rammed. @NorthNineteen Have you seen the Toilet sculpture (Banksy), in St Giles? Illustrates your point exactly.

krappyrubsnif

Kings Cross a bad choice then. Massive crowds, very spread out but only one installation worth looking at........

miss annie

I hear that King's Cross is the least dramatic. Cannot wait to see the Abbey, the pictures I've seen look fabulous.

kreuzkav

@ Miss Annie.  Out around Kings Cross with friends near King's Cross yesterday evening and we took a meander up there.  As KRS stated it was very crowded and the light installations weren't that impressive.  I hadn't been up around that area in recent years and I liked the psychogeographical meadering observing the new urbanscape at night.

krappyrubsnif

Yes, all the KX development round the canal was new to me and interesting to wander around at night.

miss annie

Oh my, Westminster Abbey was beautiful.

NorthNineteen

I regularly wander round KX development, I think it's amazing.  I'm particularly loving the Gasholder park at the moment, I was surprised this wasn't included in lumiere as it would have been made for it<br>

krappyrubsnif

I rather got the impression several of the KX light events were really just w***y art installations dreamed up by students from the Uni of the Arts. And I don't mean 'witty'. Really, anyone can do something with a few coloured neon strip lights and an electric motor on a canal towpath if somebody else is paying. There was one spectacular circus show projected on the Granary building, but even that was entirely derivative of Monte Python with an awful banal commentary. David Bowie it was not.

Arkady

<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Like NorthNineteen I'm a bit in love with the KX redevelopment. </span>I really like the Granary building projection. But I got the distinct impression that the rest of the KX Lumiere displays were designed to draw people up into the top of the site to see the new buildings and park - they didn't have a lot of merit.<div><br></div><div>Westminster Abbey was glorious though.</div>

miss annie

It was! Out of interest had anyone who loves King's Cross now spent much time there before the regeneration? Clubbing, visiting the Nature Reserve or the railway arch shops?

Sutent

I loved the cross I used to be a member. So many fun nights

NorthNineteen

Yes, used to visit a few of the nightclubs and a friend and myself used to do a bit of urban exploration especially the bit just behind Great Northern hotel which was demolished in early 2002 I think.  Used to walk along the canal too.<br><br>Such an improvement to how it was. Losing night clubs was sad but that's part of a wider trend... Keep meaning to check the KX development plans to see what is included in the way of cultural space likes gig venues, bars or night clubs.<br>

kreuzkav

I think the KX development is quite attractive.  However, it depends on how you like your city.  The area developed was wild and late at night a dangerous area.  Lots of unused land and prostitution and heavy drug use was going on.  However, there were some interesting places like the BattleBridge Centre behind Kings Cross station. A place where many a fanzine and flyers for bands and clubs were made and printed.  This was 20 years and more ago before PCs came down in price.  There was also the best cinema ever called The Scala where the same named music venue is now.  Times change.  There's good and bad in it for me.

Sutent

The colourful lights and trees outside Dishoom are horrible. 

TheMimsy

@ Miss Annie Lived in KX 1994-1999. Not much of a clubber, so was never particularly' interested in Bagley's and the likes, loved being central and used to walk everywhere from there... Backpackers Bar was crazy at weekends, with people staggering on York Way at 6 in the morning asking for directions on "how to get home", with "home" often being far away places like Southampton, Maidstone... I used to love the Ritz Building on Weller's Court. Sadly has been pulled down, and it's featured in the Mike Leigh film "High Hopes" (that's where the main characters live) and I have always been fascinated by the gassworks. The Arches are also interesting ,and St Pancras Cemetery is lovely. From memory, The Scala stopped being a cinema just before I moved there, but i have always been intrigued by it. My local was the Waterside Inn, on the canal, no longer there (got pulled down when they built Kings Place). I remembers scores of rough sleepers living in and out of the station and there used to be an entrance/exit on York Way whereby people could enter/exit the station and walk along the platform. Bottom end of Cally Road, where Housman's is has always been a bit seedy, as well as the bit on Pentonville Road where the old Thameslink entrance used to be. Camley Street was another favourite. The most improved thing for me is the actual station, much cleaner and with better facilities than the old one. I loved living there, but it has changed beyond recognition...