Has anybody sneered at it though ?

I think people have been dismissive that it doesn’t represent what they want it represent. A bit like complaining that salt and vinegar crisps don’t taste of cheese and onion.

We are planning to visit next Sunday. I’m pretty certain that I’ll cry. If it is raining at the time it might help me to preserve a bit of manliness but whatever happens I’m going to pay my respect.

Planning to park at Battersea Park and then tube to Tower Hill. We will also include a visit to the Imperial War Museum. It’s going to be an intense day.

Ambrose, and others, be sure to also visit this place;

Tower Hill Memorial. To the Merchant Navy.

“No grave but the sea”

then tube to Tower Hill

Tower Hill station was shut today because of the sheer volume of people, I don’t know whether next Sunday, Remembrance Sunday, it will be any less congested.

We took the train to London Bridge and had a nice walk over Tower Bridge, as a great many other people also did.

On the list, my family are from Jamaica and tried to help to feed Britain. They had a few privations themselves. Also on the list is the Bomber Command memorial. My grandfather flew with them. He had balls of steel that man.

Went yesterday morning before the crowds.

Really quite moving.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/pUJ1mx]2014-11-01 at 08-51-50[/url] by -Cheesyfeet-, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/pCvyzu]2014-11-01 at 08-49-54[/url] by -Cheesyfeet-, on Flickr

Also found this in the gardens round the moat walkway…
[url=https://flic.kr/p/pCwGJT]Untitled[/url] by -Cheesyfeet-, on Flickr

went on friday , it was really busy .

very moving .

ernie_lynch – Member
It certainly is specifically not a memorial to all the dead of ” The Great War “
Which presumably is precisely why it isn’t being described as a memorial to all the dead of ” The Great War “.
It couldn’t possibly be made any clearer that each poppy represents a British military fatality during the WW1.
http://poppies.hrp.org.uk/about-the-installation

Leaving it to ‘the Allies and Germans’ to remember their own war dead in their own way sounds perfectly reasonable.
Although obviously not to those who look for any opportunity to sneer at such events.

Don’t think there is any sneering there.

It is beautiful and moving. However, I can’t help but feel that by not including the dead from both sides that we miss an opportunity to recognise the total waste of war. By continuing to suggest we should mourn only for our own dead in our own ways are we not actually continuing to perpetuate the myth of ‘the other’ and our differences?

We went again on Saturday, third time for me. Certainly the most busy not least as weather was good and we are approaching the 11th. It’s been fascinating to watch the numbers of poppies grow. Such a powerful display, I have seen nothing else like it.

Oh

My

Word.

Such an awesome tribute. I’m uncertain if I have ever been in a bigger, denser mass of people, all of whom were focused upon the same single thing, the ‘Bloodswept Lands and Seas of Red’.

There were huge crowds, and rightly so.

It was like a sea of blood, then and now. Each and every poppy represents a life lost. There are SO many that any individual one was hard to focus upon because there was always another and then another and then more.. and more… and more…

http://poppies.hrp.org.uk/

the quaker map covers all the dead
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=ztmNGmuUWfH0.k5FfbOPspjLI

A good friend of mine when for a run at 8am past the Tower on Saturday and the crowds where already 4 deep, amazing.

I shall be there later.

For me it’s a way to remember the dead of all who’ve died in conflict – whether they be armed combatants or not.

We need to remember in the hope that one day we’ll stop.

jambalaya – Member
A good friend of mine when for a run at 8am past the Tower on Saturday and the crowds where already 4 deep, amazing.

I was there with the family on Saturday morning, we arrived just before 8am and were shocked by how busy it was then.

Took us about 90mins to walk round, we headed back at 6pm ish as we had parked closeby (Minories car park) and it was about 10 deep near the tower entrance.

Really glad we went as it was a very moving and poignant display and one we will never forget. Having seen numerous pictures etc it still didn’t hit you just how many there are until you actually see it in person.

I saw one of the co-designers on the news last night (Tom Piper). He was extremely eloquent and talked about remembrance and the ephemerel nature of the installation. I can’t find the interview on the BBC news site, but if it pops up it’s well worth watching.

Took my girls last week.
Very moving.

For me it’s a way to remember the dead of all who’ve died in conflict – whether they be armed combatants or not.

We need to remember in the hope that one day we’ll stop.

I totally agree… unfortunately, there seems to be a deeply ingrained hypocrisy displayed by our leaders, one minute posing for a photo op to mourn the dead and the next promoting sales of weapons of mass destruction.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/18/britains-arms-trade-making-killing

Went back in August.
Was about a third done, but even then the scale of it was humbling.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/pHXANf]IMAG3763[/url] by pten2106, on Flickr

Went last week, surprisingly emotional experience

Quick phone picture