Part of London Bridge, a grey steel and concrete product of the seventies, has been illuminated by a new 190-foot-long mosaic.
The public artwork, titled In a River a Thousand Streams, is a collaboration between Camden’s London School of Mosaic (LSOM) and British artist and designer Adam Nathaniel Furman.
First proposed in 2016, the mosaic was started in 2022 and comprises 250,000 glass pieces in 28 different colors along a wall at London Bridge’s bus terminal. Seventy volunteers helped put it together and it’s LSOM’s largest commission to date.
London Bridge, one of the oldest and busiest rail terminals in the UK and Europe, sees 21 million people coming and going each year. This is why Furman chose the location – he wanted as many people as possible to see the mosaic.
“We wanted to use the project to platform mosaic as a medium at home in the gateway to London, where many pieces make up the whole,” LSOM said. “Immediately recognizing Furman’s investment in the community power of the decorative, we commissioned [him] to design the mosaic.”
The artwork is funded by Southwark Council, the Arts Council England, and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Joshua Gordon, a former LSOM student and volunteer who helped create the mosaic, said, “This brings a nice piece of color and a splash of excitement to the city – it contrasts the grey exterior of the Shard and stuff, but I think that’s nice.”
