Britain’s iconic Tower of London will be covered in a cascading installation of 30,000 red ceramic poppies to mark 80 years since the end of World War II.
The tribute, called “The Tower Remembers” will be unveiled to the public on Thursday, May 8, which is celebrated as Victory in Europe (VE) Day.
“This is the last really important anniversary of the Second World War that we could have veterans with us to tell their stories,” said Rhiannon Goddard.
She is helping lead the project, with volunteers assembling and installing the flowers, a traditional British symbol of remembrance for those killed in the two World Wars.
The moat of the 900-year-old Tower of London, which looms over the north bank of the Thames, was first flooded with the poppies in 2014 to mark the centenary of the start of World War I.
In that installation, visited by the late Queen Elizabeth II, nearly 900,000 poppies were used, one for each life lost in Britain and its colonies.
Now, designer Tom Piper and artist Paul Cummins are bringing back 30,000 poppies from the same collection to “reflect on the wounds of war”, said Goddard.
The poppies bleeding out the side of the historic structure also represent the damage to the Tower during the Blitz, the German bombing campaign in Britain.
Cascading down from the central White Tower, the installation will have the poppies “flowing through the inner ward and then out into the south moat”, said Goddard, head of public engagement projects at Historic Royal Palaces, which manages the castle.
The ceramic symbols will be put carefully into place over 10 days by rotating groups of volunteers.
“I really wanted to volunteer for this project, because I thought it was really important to represent all the British soldiers that came from the colonies,” said Harshida Amin, 62, whose grandfather helped in the war effort from India.
“Seeing them [the poppies] in such abundance just… demonstrates how many soldiers died for our freedom,” Amin told AFP, assembling the ceramic poppies before sticking them into the ground.
“I think it’s really important for the next generation to remember this, and for my generation as well,” she said.
The installation will be open to the public from May 8 until Armistice Day on November 11.
