Traffic Light Tree

The Traffic Light Tree is an eight-meter-tall public sculpture on London's Trafalgar Way roundabout featuring seventy-five sets of computer-controlled traffic lights that replace a real tree killed by pollution. Created by Pierre Vivant in 1998, its randomized light patterns were originally designed to sync with the London Stock Exchange. Nearby, Billingsgate Fish Market moved to this site in 1982, paying Tower Hamlets an annual ground rent of just one fish.

London Β· from the walk β€œDocks, Deals & Dollars” Β· audio ~3 min Β· Generated

Trafalgar Way roundabout, London E14 5ST

Why was London's Traffic Light Tree created on the Trafalgar Way roundabout?

Look at this. Just... look at it. Eight metres of flashing red, amber, and green, sprouting from this roundabout like some kind of electric oak tree. This is the Traffic Light Tree, and it is one of London's strangest and most beloved public artworks.......... It was commissioned in nineteen ninety-eight by the Public Art Commissions Agency as part of the London Docklands Development Corporation's programme β€” a grand effort to breathe life into these old industrial docks as they transformed into the glittering financial district you see around you.......... But here's the part most people don't know. This sculpture was built to Replace a real London plane tree on the original roundabout site β€” a tree that had actually died from severe air pollution caused by the surrounding industrial and vehicular activity. So French sculptor Pierre Vivan decided... if the city killed the tree, the city would Become the tree. Seventy-five sets of traffic lights, all computer-controlled, generate dynamic, randomized patterns that reflect the rhythm of urban life.......... And what were those lights Originally supposed to respond to? It was initially intended that the lights would be triggered to reflect flurries of activity on the London Stock Exchange β€” imagine, every surge in trading sending a ripple of green and red across the sculpture! But the idea proved too expensive, so the lights cycle through their own restless, unpredictable patterns instead.......... Some motorists were initially confused by the traffic lights, mistaking them for real signals. You can picture the chaos! But it quickly became a local favourite. In two thousand five, a survey of British motorists named this roundabout the best in the entire country.......... Now, glance past the sculpture toward that long building with the distinctive yellow roof. That's Billingsgate Fish Market β€” for over a Thousand years, the beating heart of London's fish trade. It moved to this spot near Canary Wharf in nineteen eighty-two, but the story goes back to medieval times. In sixteen ninety-nine, an Act of Parliament declared it "a free and open market for all sorts of fish whatsoever." With one curious exception. The sale of eels was restricted to Dutch fishermen β€” their reward for helping to feed Londoners during the Great Fire of sixteen sixty-six.......... And here's a wonderful detail β€” the City of London Corporation still runs the market on this site, and pays the Borough of Tower Hamlets an annual ground rent of... "the gift of one fish." One single fish. For thirteen acres of prime Docklands land!......... So there it stands β€” a dead tree reborn as seventy-five traffic lights, flickering beside a fish market that's been feeding London since before Shakespeare was born. Maritime trade, modern banking, the endless pulse of commerce... it all converges right here, on this unlikely little roundabout.

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