The Line, London: Walking the Art Trail from Greenwich to Stratford

The Line, London was created in 2015 by Megan Piper and Clive Dutton, and is London’s first dedicated art walk, currently consisting of 22 stops/ art and sculptures.

Past artists have included Damian Hurst and Bill Viola. Tracey Emin is one of the current artists on display and her work ‘A Moment Without You’, which depicts five small sculptures of birds sitting on poles, is her only public sculpture to be displayed in London. There are many other well known and less discovered artists along the seemingly ever-changing trail.

It may not be the ‘prettiest’ place in London but the trail takes you along some parts you may not have explored before and shows a more edgy side of the city, taking you through back streets, laneways and the canal.

The route roughly follows the Greenwich Meridian and officially starts in Stratford and ends in Greenwich. However, I walked The Line the other way around, so I could do some shopping in Stratford at the end! Unfortunately, some of my images got lost, so a few are from Wikimedia.

This quick guide will give you an idea of what to expect, but I suggest heading to the official The Line London website and downloading the map. It was fairly easy to follow although some places you may need to concentrate to make sure you’re on track!

Some of the art on the Line, London…

So, starting at Greenwich, one of the first sculptures I came across was Richard Wilson’s ‘A Slice of Reality’ (2000). At first glance you may assume this is a boat docked on the Meridian, but on closer inspection, you will see that the boat has been ‘sliced’ in half, showing you the rooms inside. It gives viewers a glimpse of the interior and gives a different perspective, as if viewing from the inside out.

Here, the trail took me around areas in London I have not walked before, and it gives a totally different feel to the more central parts of London. I think the grey day really added to that gritty, moody vibe I get from this picture I took…

After a few pieces of art work The Line takes you over the water, you can either take the short trip on the DLR or take the Cable Car across. I’ve taken this before, so decided to hop on the DLR as it was much cheaper, but the cable car is not too expensive so if you have not been, I would recommend this for the unique views.

One of the next sculptures I came across was ‘DNA DL90’ by Abigail Fallis (2003). This was actually commissioned by a supermarket, hence the trolleys, and symbolises the 50th anniversary of DNA sequence discovery. The work depicts part of the double helix in a unique way!

Around halfway is the Three Mills Lane cobbled area, which is the backdrop to Tracey Emin’s bird sculpture. This was my favourite section and rather an unexpected find! It is really picturesque, going from the more modern, gritty areas to an old pretty mill with cobbled streets is one of the reason I love London so much, there’s so much diversity. I believe there is also a café here, which would make for a lovely stop for a coffee or tea.

Further along The Line you will walk over and along part of the canal. I happened to get this lovely shot (below) of the birds flying and sun streaming through the grey clouds, it was a pretty awesome sight!

Near to Stratford at the end of my walk on The Line (going the opposite way to the official trail remember!), is ‘Reaching Out’ by Thomas J Price (2020). It depicts a black women standing looking at her phone. Due to a lack of sculptures showing black women, the artist has made the women the focus, buy enlarging her bigger than life size, challenging both perception and a lack representation.

Stratford is the last stop on my walk, and time for some shopping! The Line London takes around 3-4 hours to walk, depending on how long you stop for. Again, download the official map and it will tell you where to start/end, as well as places to stop along the way and some info about them. Hope you enjoyed this short post, sorry for the lack of images, but maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t show you everything, as you can discover the art work yourself 😊

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