Time to find some painted lions in central London! The Tusk Lion Trail is a series of life-size fibreglass lions, painted by a variety of artists and comedians including Lee Mack (“Three Shirts on the Lion”) and Noel Fielding, as well as Adam Dant, an artist cartographer much featured on Mapping London before. They are on the ground for the next few weeks, before being auctioned off for charity. 27 have been placed, most witjhin half a mile of Piccadilly Circus but with one in the City of London. There are also three in Edinburgh and one in Bristol. (There’s also one in Wellington, New Zealand, two in Nairobi, Kenya, one in Sydney, Austria, and 12 in the Hamptons, on Long Island, New York, USA, to make a grand total of 47 around the world.)
The London pack has a special map produced, to help with locating them. It’s actually just a screenshot of the main Google Maps map for the project but it’s been well done, in a lion-coloured tint with an accompanying set of pictures, names, sponsors and the address of each lion. If you are organised, it should be possible to visit all 27 in a couple of hours. Mapping London will certainly try!
It’s not the first parade of fibreglass animals in London – from the original Cow Parade in 2002 to the Elephant Parade in 2010 and 2018, to Shaun in the City in 2015.
Now, we have lions. Lots of Lions. You have until the beginning on November to collect them all.
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