Poppies at the Tower: Remembrance Day

On Sunday 11th November is the annual Remembrance Day, commemorating the moment when the guns on the Western Front fell silent after 4 years of war, 1914-1918.

This year at the Tower of London, a new exhibition, called 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' shows ceramic poppies progressively filling the moat until the number 888,246 is reached - the number of British casualties during the First World War. You can find out more at the link here.

I'm going to provide some information for you, in case you want to go (and I highly recommend it - it's extremely moving).

1) The crowds

It's recommended to visit before 10am, or after 6pm. I went at midday, and it was absolutely packed.
The wonderful thing, though, is that everyone was being really good natured and polite towards each other. When trying to reach the front, so I could take a picture, rather than the usual jostling on London's streets, people were actually moving aside to let me pass, and people were saying 'excuse me' and 'sorry' to each other. I think that the solemnity of the exhibition made everyone stop and think, and take time to be nicer to their fellow citizens. There was a helicopter hovering overhead too, possibly for security reasons, but there was no trouble that I could see.
So don't be put off by the crowds; everyone's very good-natured.

2) The views
This was the crowd diagonally opposite me (from the Tower Hill station direction). There, you get a decent enough view, but it must be hard to get to the front, no matter how friendly everyone's being. Tower Hill is also reportedly extremely busy. I walked here from my favourite station, Charing Cross, but I understand that if you're unfamiliar with London, it might be quite a daunting trek! Try Monument, Aldgate or Aldgate East stations instead. There are fewer crowds from the London Bridge station direction, so you could try there, too.

3) Can you walk amongst the poppies?
No, you can't get down there. Only VIPs like the Royal Family are seen doing that on TV (I zoomed in the path they'd probably take). I think that the impact is greater from above, since all the poppies really do seem to form a sea.

This has been quite a solemn post, and different from my usual style, but I wouldn't want to  miss out on including this in my blog.

See you soon,

Elf Dryadalis