Tired of London, Tired of Life - A website about things to do in London

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16 March 2009

See London's only lighthouse

There is little need for lighthouses in London. There are no jagged rocks and the riverbank follows gentle curves. There is an exception, however, in the form of the Experimental Lighthouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf, built in 1864 in Docklands.


The lighthouse was built to develop lighting techniques for Trinity House's lighthouses and lightships. Where previously there were two lighthouses, only one now remains. Its former partner (once used by Michael Faraday to develop some of the earliest electric lighthouse lighting) was demolshed in the 1920s.

The remaining lighthouse is, rather oddly, now home to Longplayer, a 1,000 year long 'piece of music' based around recordings of singing bowls which began playing at midnight on the 31/12/1999, and is intended to play without repetition until the final second of 2999, when it will begin again (assuming that funding for pointless art projects hasn't been abolished by then).

The Lighthouse and Longplayer are open on the first weekend of every month from 11am to 5pm (until 4pm from December - March) and entrance is free. For more information visit the Trinity Buoy Wharf website at http://www.trinitybuoywharf.com/the-experimental-lighthouse.html or the Longplayer website at http://longplayer.org/.

The nearest DLR station is East India. Click here to view the location on a map.

1 comment:

  1. There is also a shuttle boat from Queen Elizabeth II pier on the South side of the river, which will take you across in 2.5 minutes

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