Good at Magic: The Pungent Subway

Pedestrian subways in London have a bad reputation. Their many detractors perceive them as dangerous unpleasant places, an underworld for the underworld, demeaning antiquated infrastructure for pedestrians, the detritus from an age when people were subservient to the motorcar. Across London this capital space is being filled in and erased from the landscape. Transport for London have made it their policy to block them up leaving just tomb-like caverns to be discovered by future generations. Our project confronts these negative perceptions and this policy with an incongruous assault on our sense of smell.

The Pungent Subway - an installation that is part of the London Festival of Architecture 2014 - will use the comforting and incongruous fragrance of herbs and flowers to mask the prevailing perception of urea in a 55-year-old subway at the Elephant and Castle SE1 6LW. In one of the seven subways we will curate an immersive olfactory installation. Dried lavender and bay leaves will be crushed under foot, sage and rosemary will be tied in bunches and hung from the ceiling, all of which is locally grown produce harvested from community and guerrilla gardens in SE1.

The Pungent Subway will be installed for three evenings, 12, 13 and 14 June 2014 between 6.30pm and 8.30pm.