Last Thursday I went to see the Beyond the Deepening Shadow installation at the Tower of London. I arrived at around 4, just before sunset. Already there were a lot of people filling up the maze of crowd barriers set up around the Tower.

I didn’t expect this installation to be quite so popular, and so instead of joining the queue straight away, I wandered up and down the square to get some shots of the people there.

After a short while I decided to join the queue, and there waited for my friend to show up. When they did, it wasn’t long before the queue began moving into the larger viewing area just on the edge of the Tower’s moat.

The Historic Royal Palaces website says this about the installation:

Beyond the Deepening Shadow is an evolving installation, which will unfold each evening over the course of four hours, between 17:00 and 21:00 each evening, with the Tower moat gradually illuminated by individual flames.

[…]

In a moving ritual, a select team of volunteers will [proceed] to light the rest of the installation, gradually creating a circle of light, radiating from the Tower as a powerful symbol of remembrance.

We picked a spot on the steps and stood there catching up while the sky darkened and the city lights across the Thames grew brighter. Then at 5 a lone and sharp bugle sounded the start of the ceremony, and the following shots are my impressions of the rest of the evening.