London certainly isn’t thin on the ground when it comes to all things weird, wonderful, wacky, and whimsical. But perhaps one of the city’s strangest secrets comes in the form of a trail of nose sculptures that’s been scattered around Soho, right under our noses, for nearly 30 years. Please, grab yourself a cuppa, and allow me to explain…
Why are there noses hidden around Soho?
In 1997, London saw a significant rise in CCTV, and as a satirical nod towards the surge in surveillance, an artist decided to make 35 plaster casts of his own nose and attach them to various buildings around the capital. Because, why not, right? The artist in question was later uncovered to be Rick Buckley. But for 14 years, nobody knew where these peculiar sculptures had come from, and they were shrouded in myth and mystery.
The surreptitious sculptures were painted to be the same colour as the walls on which they were attached (walls including the legendary likes of the National Gallery and the Tate Britain, might I add). Many of the noses were spotted fairly quickly and removed. But a few of them live to tell smell the tale. And one of the most famous pieces of folklore surrounding the noses is that if you find all seven of the remaining sculptures, you will become infinitely wealthy. Sign me up.
So, where are the seven noses of Soho?
If you fancy sniffing out these brilliantly bizarre sculptures, we’re here to give you a gently nudge in the right direction. Locations of the seven remaining Soho noses are the Admiralty Arch (this particular nose is thought to have been placed there as a spare nose for the memorial statue of Admiral Lord Nelson), Bateman Street, Dean Street, Meard Street, Endell Street, Great Windmill Street, and D’Arblay Street (although this last one has reportedly now been removed).
There’s a pretty high chance that you’ve walked past a few of the noses before without so much as batting an eyelid. But some of them are certainly more difficult to find than others. Of course, I can’t confirm whether or not the whole ‘infinite wealth’ thing is true, but I can, however, vouch for the fact that scoping out these wonderfully wacky works of art makes for a pretty great way to spend an afternoon in London. Happy nose-hunting, folks.