'Dazzle' - London's Bridges Light Up For London 2012

Late yesterday evening I went down onto the Thames to check out what all the fuss has been about concerning ‘Dazzle’, the Mayor’s scheme to light up some of London’s iconic bridges during and after the London 2012 Olympic Games.

As per usual with Boris’s commitments, what is promised and what is delivered are two different things – with a few exceptions ‘Dazzle’ is really more of a twinkle. While the lighting display on Waterloo and London Bridges is rather exciting , with laser images of athletes, sweeping green lines and hourly shooting flames on the former and chasing coloured led lighting on the latter, all ‘Dazzle’ involves on most of the other bridges is simple washes of cycling colours on the arches and trusses.

The most exciting part of ‘Dazzle’ is focused on Tower Bridge – it’s been brilliantly lit with white lines and, if you can hang around, something rather interesting happens on the hour, ever hour, from 9:30pm until 5am each morning. Still images don’t really do the lighting display on Tower Bridge justice, so here’s the sponsors’ video of what you can see if you happen to be there at the right time.