A massive 57-metre mosaic has been unveiled at London Bridge

Have you walked past London Bridge recently and thought ‘damn, this place could use a dash of colour?’. If so, you obvs weren’t the only one – a brand-new public artwork at the station has been unveiled, and it definitely brightens up the area. 

‘In a River a Thousand Streams’ is a huge, 57-metre mosaic which was created thanks to a collaboration between London-based artist Adam Nathaniel Furman and Camden’s London School of Mosaic, which was first proposed back in 2016. 

The creation of it began in mid-2022, and it’s the school’s largest ever commission, comprising an impressive 250,000 glass pieces in 28 different colours, which were carefully put together by 70 volunteers. Here it is:

So, why London Bridge? Well, it was vital to both Furman and the school that the work would be on display to as many people as possible, and in terms of busy real estate, you can’t really beat this station. It’s one of the oldest and most-frequented rail terminals in Europe, and in a single year, it’s projected 21 million will pass by the mosaic – that’s triple the annual visitors to the National Gallery. 

The piece’s title references its proximity to the Thames but also the station, where thousands of people flow and converge every single day (which is quite a positive way of framing frantic commuters). The mosaic also pays tribute to the sense of community and collectivity which made it possible, and 400 children have written stories to be kept at the Southwark Heritage Archive which were inspired by it.

So, keen to take a look at this marvellous collaboration? Well, you’ve got plenty of time. It’s thought that the mosaic will last for 150 years, so hopefully it’ll still be brightening up the station in the 2170s.

The mosaic is far from the only art you can see in London for free – take a look at all these free exhibitions happening across the city right now, or all these museums and galleries which are free to enter, all year-around. 

Did you see that this London museum is spending £100,000 to make its exhibitions more diverse?

Plus: How did an artist swap one of the British Museum’s historic coins with a fake?

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