LOST LONDON - SELFRIDGES CHRISTMAS WINDOW, DECEMBER 2013
For the Selfridges Christmas Windows 2013, Bompas & Parr collaborated with Biscuiteers and Lyle’s Golden Syrup to create a gingerbread cityscape of London’s lost and un-built architecture.
The biscuit-based cityscape featured now demolished London buildings such as Euston Arch, Old London Bridge, Newgate Gaol and City of London Lying-In Hospital, sadly lost through negligence, bad planning, bomb damage and natural disaster. Bompas & Parr also looked at the wonders of London, that were planned and never built, like the Battle of Waterloo memorial ziggurat designed to span Trafalgar Square, the ten-storey mausoleum tower for the roof of Selfridges and Richard Roger’s proposed National Gallery Extension.
The edible city – which took 400 hours to design, bake and build - spanned a total surface area of 10 metres squared and loomed 2.8m tall. It consisted of 25 ingredients including 353kg of gingerbread, 245kgs of icing sugar and over 80 litres of Golden Syrup. The exterior was held together using a litre of confectioners glue and decorated using 2kg of glitter. Limited-edition festive tins of Lyle’s Golden Syrup were used to create bespoke model planes, cars and buses to really bring ‘Lost London’ to life.
Photography by Ann Charlott Ommedal and Selfridges.