Tower Poppy Reprieve

That IS great news! I was surprised at the pictures in the article showing people lined up overlooking the poppies. That must have been when a dignitary was visiting and/or planting poppies. I went on an early Sunday morning at the end August (before the Tower opened) and there were very few people actually looking at the display or giving more than a cursory glance over the walls. I also didn't realize that some of the sections were named (Weeping Widow and Wave). Nice that they will be preserved in the War Museum.

I was there in August when only about a quarter or fewer of the poppies were planted, in the north moat and was most impressed and very very moved. It was just after I had returned from the memorial to a relative killed after the Third Battle of Passchendaele, near Ypres/Ieper.

I was there on Tuesday this week, at about 12.30, the crowds were huge. I saw the poppies absolutely filling all the moat, all the way around the Tower, side to side. There were at least crowds 10 deep all the way around.

It was most impressive.

Today, Remembrance Saturday, the trains I was on towards London were standing room only all the way from 50 to 60 miles out of London. At Milton Keynes Central station I saw queues for the ticket window 2 and a half times around the outside edge of the great concourse - I've never seen it anything like that.

Granted, in addition to the Poppies, there was the Lord Mayor's Show, but that would have finished by then, and a small fixture at Twickenham, but I've never seen anything like it.

Ouch Keith. No offense meant. I just did not have that experience at all and the pictures in the story showed dignitaries there visiting and planting poppies so that merged in my mind.

I find this installation so incredible, how it has really captured people's fascination. I had been hoping they'd extend it based on some of the comments I'd read of other British folks (especially) wanting to be able to get to London to see it (thank you for your insight Nigel on what you've seen the past few days and compared with your August visit). I can't imagine I'll make it there myself, but I would really love to see a time-lapse video showing the spreading of the poppies through their full number on Armistice Day Tuesday. It's so cool how the artist considers the dispersal of the poppies to people's homes after their purchase to be part of the evolution to the installation. What a feat of imagination and execution (no pun intended) this is.

I submitted the names of the three family members who died in WW1 (my great grandfather, his brother and, on the other side of the family, my grandmother's brother) to be read out during the sunset ceremonies at the Tower. They also sent me links to a video of each of the relevant ceremonies for me to download and keep.

IMO the simplicity and lack of jingoism of the installation borders on genius. It is so much more apt and thought provoking than some of the ideas put forward by our politicians eg a military parade

It's truly an amazing memorial. WWI isn't remembered as much as WWII in the US for obvious reasons--we were late and had many fewer casualties. I am not diminishing the role of the US soldiers, but it was much bigger in WWII. I am going to have to look and see if there are any special commemorations in NYC this week.

Pam

Claudia, thanks for posting this. The official website for the poppies is http://poppies.hrp.org.uk/.

I saw a story about this on the evening news a few days ago. The sight of a lake of red surrounding the Tower is stunning. I especially like the effect of poppies spilling from a section of wall and symbolically filling the moat.

Some people (British subjects only?) are signing a petition to keep the poppies up much longer than the Nov. 11 end date, but the artist/designer doesn't want the exhibit up past Nov. 12. Darn. I'm just starting to plan a trip next year that includes a weekend in London and would have loved to see the exhibit in person.

The ceramic poppies would not survive the winter rain and frosts.

The estimate of the number of visitors (which cannot be known as it is in free sight) has been given today as over 4 million.

We were lucky to see it in early Sept - I'm actually glad I got to see it with fewer poppies as they had some interesting shapes or waves in the display. Crowds were light (we were there on a Tues and Wed)...but I have seen photos of it last week - I guess it was half-term for the schools, they were asking people to stay away, and I read they had to shut down the London Bridge tube station for a time because of the people! I don't think I could handle the crowds. It was absolutely gorgeous...I hemmed and hawed about buying a poppy and finally decided 3 weeks ago to buy one - all gone of course...sigh...

I wasn't planning on going to the Tower when I was in London in late September, but I just had to go see the poppies. It was an amazing and very moving site that I will never forget. It's interesting to see the current photos with it being much more filled in.

The ceramic poppies would not survive the winter rain and frosts.

The poppies have also all been sold.

Dang. A day late (well, in this case a year late!) and a dollar short.

My husband got to see the poppies today. "still pretty crazy" he said about the crowds ...

Does anyone know if they are going to do this again in 2015? Or was it just a for a special 100 year anniversary?

Ok, thanks emma!