It was crowded. It took me 15 minutes to get out of the tube station and cross the road — this despite the fact that the ticket gates were open and there were police officers with megaphones stopping traffic for us. It may have been 11:15 on a Thursday morning in November, but it was hard to move. Here's just some of the crowd:
This time, I went to the western side of the Tower. After waiting awhile, I got close enough to the railings to take some pictures. It's really impressive:
Individually, those poppies are all different and quite pretty. Together, they're still pretty but in a scary, river-of-blood kind of way. It's a metaphor that's hard to miss, and it certainly works. The art critic in The Guardian criticised the display for not telling the full horror of World War 1, but I strongly differ with him: it certainly horrified me, and is so accessible it's no wonder that 4,000,000 people have seen it so far. It's very powerful.
I can see why politicians are clamouring to recommend that it stays open for a few weeks longer than was intended.