Some sharks that have been hanging around the Regents Canal in Hackney have swum up the canal a bit and can now be found in the City Road Basin, in Islington.
They’re art and surprisingly controversial art at that.
The fibreglass sharks were the winning entry in an annual art competition run by Hackney based Antepavilion, but provoked the ire of the council as putting them in the canal lacked planning permission.
There’s a wider issue as Antepavilion seems to have a track record of doing things without planning permission, and the sharks may have been the final straw for the council. They’ve been in limbo for some months, with one trying to break out of its cage, but they’ve escaped and headed up-canal to neighbouring Islington.
Now installed in City Road Basin not far from Angel tube station, they’re bobbing around a bit in the wind and attracting quite a bit of attention. On my visit, a dad and kid were very excited to get their selfies taken in front of the sharks.
As to whether the sharks will sing, as was originally planned, we’ll have to wait and see.
I think they should go on a worldwide tour, being lent out for maybe three months at a time.
They would of course be known as the Loan Sharks.
I agree with the comment above about the sharks touring the canal! I’m in Ealing and would love the sharks to make their way over to the Grand Union Canal by me for a bit. 🙂