The Elephant Parade - London

As mentioned in my earlier post dated Saturday 22nd May, I told of my plans to photograph some of the wonderful 250 elephants placed around London. Unfortunately i did not get nearly all of them done but did photograph as many as I could by walking from Notting Hill (where I saw the actors James and Oliver Phelps who play the twins Fred and George Weasley in Harry Potter getting onto the underground!) to Soho, going through Kensington, Hyde Park, Green Park, Regent Street and Carnaby Street. I thought the elephants were really imaginative and beautifully decorated and I shall continue to photograph as many as I can before they are removed. But for now, I hope you enjoy some of the photographs I have taken.

Click on image to enlarge.

"Travels On My Elephant" by Thammakit Thamboon (Notting Hill Gate)

"Naveen" by John Stefanidis (Notting Hill Gate)


"Oran (You Stole My Heart)" by Adam Bridgland (Notting Hill Gate)

"Lunacrooner" by Maria Ines Aguirre (Kensington High Street)


"Whisper" by Soju Tanaka (Kensington High Street)



"The Isles of London" by Stephen Walter (Kensington Gore)

"Fatima" by Natasha Mann (Kensington Gore)

The Happy Herd in Hyde Park

"Blitz" by Rasamee Kongchan (Hyde Park, Dell Garden)
"Dart" by Rasamee Kongchan (Hyde Park, Dell Garden)
"Vroom" by Rasamee Kongchan (Hyde Park, Dell Garden)
"The Swan" by Peera Bangkae (Hyde Park, Dell Garden)
"Ladybird" by Peera Bangkae (Hyde Park, Dell Garden)
"Spike" by Jirawan Suwanaklang (Hyde Park, Dell Garden)

"Blue Macaw" by Jirawan Suwanaklang (Green Park)

"Karma" by Professor Gordon Murray (Green Park)

"Spotty" by Nongklan Pornmingmas (Green Park)

"Elefun" by Rosie Brooks (Green Park)

"The Empire is not Striking Back" by Chintan Upadhyay (Green Park)


"Ampersand" by Luca Boonkerd Kaewdee (Hyde Park Corner)

"Zabriskie" by Storm Thorgerson (Hyde Park Corner)


"Tree Of Love" by Anchalee Intorn (National Geographic, Regent Street)


"Vanda" by Rosie Sanders (Swallow Street)


"R" by Gavin Tuck (New Burlington Place)


"Candy" by Isaac Mizrahi (Carnaby Street)


"Elephish" by Mariana Bassani (Foubert's Place/Regent Street)



"Bertie" by Julien MacDonald (Foubert's Place/Kingly Street)



"Kissed By Lulu Guinness" by Lulu Guinness (Carnaby Street/Broadwick Street)



The Elephant Parade Shop (Carnaby Street)


"Maureen" by Mackenzie Thorpe (Queens Walk, National Theatre)



"Sally" by Joanna May (Queens Walk, National Theatre)

"Look out! Look out! Pink elephants on parade"

Recently I went up to London and noticed all these colourful, beautifully made model elephants around. I went to Trafalgar Square, Oxford Circus and Southbank and throughout my journey I kept seeing these elephants. Turns out there are over 250 of them all over London, each elephant has been decorated by a different artist or celebrity and is a conservation campaign that shines a spotlight on the urgent crisis faced by the endangered Asian elephant due to their habitat being torn down. Every elephant is for sale by auction and every bid you place is a bid for habitat. For more information visit http://www.elephantparadelondon.org/

I absolutely fell in love with this event, which is London's biggest outdoor art event on record, therefore I am planning to do my own project on these wonderful elephants. I am back home in a weeks time so I am going to download the route map provided on the website, which shows were all the different elephants are situated, and try and photograph all of them. I have not quite got all the details of exactly how I am going to do it yet but I know it will be good fun...

I'll keep you posted!