It's that time of year again when dark January nights are banished from Canary Wharf, to make way for Winter Lights, a festival of light installations and illuminations. It's completely free to visit, with the artworks dotted all over Canary Wharf, including in parks, on roundabouts, and up on the roof of Crossrail Place.
Several of this year's offerings will be familiar to anyone who's been to previous Winter Lights; those giant illuminated angel wings make a return, as do illuminated benches in Canada Square Park.
There are plenty of new things to see too though, including a bench that flashes in time with your pulse, a forest of psychedelic glittering trees and a light maze.
Unfortunately, technical problems marred a couple of the installations on the opening night. Recyclism by Oskar Krajewski (#10 on the official map) wasn't working on our first visit, but we backtracked later in the evening to once it was fixed.
Bit. Fall by Julius Popp (#2) was also not working on when we visited, but it's another one that'll already be familiar from previous years — words from a live newsfeed on The Times website cascade down a waterfall into the docks below.
For us, this year's highlight is Submergence by Squidsoup (#17). Located in Montgomery Square, many strings of fairy lights hang down from a metal frame, the public encouraged to walk among them. If, like us, you arrive early in the sequence, it doesn't look like much, but it's a bit of a slow burner and if you hang around for a few minutes, you're rewarded with a building crescendo of light and sound.
Take a look at some of our photos from Winter Lights 2019:
Canary Wharf Winter Lights 2019 runs every night until 26 January, 5pm-10pm. It's completely free, and you can download a map here to help you on your way.
