Gill Bradley’s Serco Prize-winning illustration featured an escaped monkey jazz band that rampaged through the capital in 1927. Six industry figures tell us about their weirdest London sights.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen in London?
Micheal Smith, Cog Design
On 5 May 2006 rumours were spreading that a rocket-shaped missile had crashed through the pavement off Pall Mall. A crowd gathered as smoke poured from the crater. A crane prized open the rocket and lifted out a young girl, a marionette as tall as a three-story building. She ‘wandered off’ around Trafalgar Square, through Admiralty Arch and on to Horse Guards Parade where she met her soulmate – a 50-ton mechanical elephant, carrying a time-travelling sultan and his harem. This was the start of an astonishing publicly funded three-day theatrical event that changed the cultural landscape of Britain forever.
cogdesign.com
Lizzie Mary Cullen
Before the Shard came along at London Bridge, there was a little-known club underneath the station. You could access it through an unassuming door that no one ever noticed. I’d never even seen it until I went down to the club one Saturday night. There were live art performances and lots of prop (I assume) machine guns. I watched a piece that involved three girls sitting at a dining table – they all wore pink wigs and nothing else. It was dark and people were watching attentively what the girls would do, when they began eating jelly and screaming. The club was closed when the foundation work for the Shard began. Pity.
lizziemarycullen.com
Stuart Patience
I think one of the strangest sights I’ve encountered was last summer when I found myself at the London Comicon in the Excel Centre. There are too many bizarre sightings to list but I think these are my two highlights. Firstly, arriving at the station and seeing a bemused Starbucks barista serving a long queue of people dressed as Picachu, Darth Vader and the girl from the Exorcist, all texting on their phones. And secondly, a group of Power Rangers having a dance-off to a drum and bass version of the Tetris Soundtrack.
stuartpatience.co.uk
Kara Penn, Fit Creative
It’s difficult to say you’ve seen something strange in London as by nature the city is complex. As a city dweller you get used to seeing striking new elements (big, blue cockerels), clever ideas (a drummer whose complete kit has been built onto bike that he can ride away), unexpected objects (a large, black sound room in the middle of Trafalgar Square), or even shocking events (one commuter suddenly biting the man next to him on the shoulder and actually drawing blood). But strange? Isn’t it all a bit strange and isn’t that why we love it?
fitcreative.ltd.uk
William Grill
I was drawing in Clissold Park one autumn afternoon, and couldn’t help but notice two very smart Jewish men walking alongside the goat enclosure. There was something about them. They slowed to a halt beside the fence, giggling beneath their beards. It made sense moments afterwards, as they began to feed the unknowing beast handfuls of conkers through the fence. Sadly their mischief was soon over, when the park warden sped round the corner in his Kawasaki Mule and told them off like a pair of naughty boys.
williamgrill.co.uk
Brett Ryder
Two runners, two separate instances. While I was sitting having a sandwich on a bench in Hyde Park, a rather smartly dressed man came rushing out of of Kensington Palace at great speed. The unusual thing was that all his clothes were on back-to-front. He was immaculately dressed in trousers, a blazer, shirt and even a bow tie, but all backwards. The second incident was when I was driving by the side of the Thames coming up to Chelsea Bridge in the early hours of the morning, about 5am. As I was slowing to some traffic lights I glanced out of my side window to see a very athletic black man completely naked running like he was on his morning jog, swinging in the breeze.
brettryder.co.uk