Canary Wharf Winter Lights - On an Orange Brompton

After the really enjoyable Lumiere 2018 ride the previous week, I announced that I would be going to the Canary Wharf Winter Lights before it ended. A few other Brompton chums said that they would like to come as well and thankfully David P took pity on me and agreed to navigate. So we met at the London Eye on Friday 26th January and looked forward to another illuminated fun ride.

You may already have read my blog post reviewing the Proviz LED Nightrider jacket but along with taking photos of the lovely nocturnal sights of London, I was kept busy taking photos of Dr John who  kindly agreed to be my muse for the evening.

Throughout the night I suggested poses Dr John was very obliging I have to say. I was rather pleased with some of the photos and how they turned out and I suspect it was also quite a novelty for Dr John.

The weather was very kind and although on the chilly side it was a dry and fairly clear night. As we reached the familiar location of St Kathrine's Dock with wondrous views of Tower Bridge, the night air was punctuated with sound of 'just look away from the camera...try and look nonchalant...l'd like you to glaze wistfully but not directly at the camera.'

Our route took us past some familiar territory that in day or night I find very agreeable and could never feel tired of.

Quite soon we arrived at the steps leading up to Canary Wharf from the Thames Path and the Winter Lights were all around. Our first stop was a small green space probably used by office workers by day but now transformed with green lines that almost looked like lasers being fired.

Next up were illuminated green and orange string that one could pluck like a guitar.

With Canary Wharf being so compact. once there we found that moving between the various exhibits was quick and easy.

One piece that really caught my attention were precision drips of water that changed width according to how long or short a word was that was projected onto the water as it fell. It was very cleverly done and I found it quite absorbing reading which word would be spelled out next.

One exhibit consisted of triangular shaped slights that rose and fell to a synthesiser music accompaniment. Again this was hypnotic and it felt to me like the alien invasion has begun. I really enjoyed it.

Our last exhibit was another small green space with a few white rabbits. Some looked as it it had been a hard few weeks as their ears were deflated slightly.

With as much of the Winter Lights seen we headed back to the the London Eye but before that we headed towards Greenwich and under the Thames foot tunnel.

Always a fun thing to do with no-one else in sight we made our way across to the other side and up into the night air.

As we made our way back to where we started many of us continued to take the odd photograph here and there. London at night is so appealing it is very hard to resist its allure.

We arrived back in good time a little after 22:00. Saying our goodbyes we made our separate ways hopefully to repeat something like this in the not too distant future.

Many thanks to David for again leading the way. Much appreciated. There is also a short video posted not too long ago that hopefully captures the vibe for this great little ride as much as the photographs do.