How cool is this? Not only is there a plaque (the middle one in the top row) depicting a space invader on a bridge I cross when I walk to work, it turns out that the anonymous artist who put it up has done a lot more of them in London and 34 other cities around the world. Inevitably, he has his own website, and here’s a map showing where some of the plaques in London are located.
The one I’m talking about is at the southwest corner of the bridge carrying Clerkenwell Road across the Underground tracks north of Farringdon station, for other locals. My route also takes me past this rather impressive Banksy nearby. Have any other Dopers who live in places that have been “invaded” noticed the plaques?
In my web travels I once ran across a site with other random acts of street art, such as putting plaster breasts on the walls. I wish I could find that site again but I am not going to search for “wall boobs”. I think these versions of street art are a lot more interesting than graffiti though.
Uh oh. This smacks of one of the long-term mysteries we tried to address on this board and never solved. Toynbee plaques started appearing in the 1970’s mainly in the U.S. but also many other cities in the world. No one ever figured out where they came from although we almost had them pinned to a guy in Philadelphia (but he had moved).
I love these little space invaders too, and in my new flat (well, I’m here for 2 years now) when I came in, I was so glad to see there is one just in the street crossing my street… So I see it every day too ! And I think the artist is a French one
