ERASED CITY - Site analysis : Shrinking and Sinking City of London
The city of London has always been at the risk of flooding and numerous measures for retaining the river Thames and to estimate rising water levels have been taken ever since.
The copper lion heads along the banks of the Thames were designed by Timothy Butler and installed as part of Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s Victorian sewage works programme in 1868-70.
They inform the British saying:
“When the lions drink, London will sink
“When the lions drink, London will sink”
“When it’s up to their manes, we’ll go down the drains”
“When the water is sucked, you can be sure we’re all ... in trouble”
The still frames of a stop-motion video show the rise and fall of the tide at Walbrook Wharf over a 10 hour period of time.
The tide can be read as a metaphor for a force which cyclically comes and goes, which brings and takes things away. Since water is one of the primal elements and can be regarded as a purifying, reviving element, revealing the lost river Walbrook will act as a healing vessel for the dying City of London.