Each year, St Pancras station commissions an artist to produce a Christmas tree, and this years is better than most, being a city cluster of London’s landmark buildings.
The 33ft tree features terrace houses, church yards, department stores, ferris wheels, bridges, concert venues, skyscrapers, towers and monuments. It’s also hand-drawn, with the drawing taking over 60 hours to complete.
A lot of classic London icons are included, from Big Ben*, the Gherkin, the London Eye, St Paul’s Cathedral, the former City Hall, and Nelson’s Column, amongst others.
Also look closely to see references to the Twelve Days of Christmas, such as the swans laying, lords leaping and gold rings. Colour is added with the phone boxes and a few trees, but mainly it’s black and white.
It looks a bit better in the evening as it’s lit up from the inside.
The tree is also a fundraiser for The Prince’s Trust, with their website details for donations on the fence around the tree, in the style of classic London street name signs.
*Yeah, yeah, get over it.
The swans are swimming. Those a geese a-laying.
Those ARE geese a-laying, sorry.
Even in 2D on this screen, that looks amazing. All hand-drawn too, wonderful.
The choice of buildings and street furniture warms the cockles of my heart all the more because the style reminds me of the television adaptation of the stories about a certain visitor to London from Peru (darkest).
As always, there are so many interesting stories in this week’s post. Thank you, Ian!