The mystery red line is back. And this time it's tricksier than ever. The new piece of minimalist pavement art picks up where it left off, opposite the Novotel on Euston Road. (Camden Council must be apoplectic, after doing their best to erase the earlier marking.) We followed it along Pentonville Road for quite some way until it took a sharp right down Amwell Street into Finsbury. From there, it runs into Roseberry Avenue (passing one of Banksy's finest - pictured here), before skirting round the edge of Mount Pleasant sorting office.
Then, a sudden halt. The line seemed to end just south of the post office. A little disappointed, we climbed up the noisome steps of the Roseberry Viaduct, only to find the line restored on the bridging roadway. Wa-hey, the thin red line goes multidimensional.
With renewed enthusiasm, we tracked what must be the world's longest graffito down Gray's Inn Road to Holborn. Here we found another new twist. The line split three ways. The right fork led to Chancery Lane, terminating outside Alistair Crowley's old gaff. That links up nicely with part of the previous line, now erased.
Tracking back, we followed the other fork past the famous Tudor buildings and on to Holborn Circus. Here, the line described a semi-circle around the southern half of the roundabout, before terminating outside a building site.
So, the mystery deepens. On a Recent Robert Elms radio show, a caller confessed to being the phantom line painter. She promised more to come, and it seems she's delivered. She also said that there's some kind of wider plan, but wouldn't divulge any further info.
Looking at the map (where we've represented the new line in pink), it's hard to see what that purpose might be. One thing we can predict, though. If there's to be a third instalment, it will likely start from Holborn Circus, perhaps looping round the South Bank to 'join up' with the other loose end, where this all began on the Embankment.
Please - contribute your theories and opinions in the comments section. Is this art? (The 'artist' thought so on the radio phone in.) Should she be arrested? Or praised? And most importantly, what can it all mean?
