Tideway Bronze Plaques, sites across London
Cross London Tideway commission: Bronze Plaques, Pentagram
Year
2025
Client
fereday pollard for Tideway
Artist / designer
Marina Willer, Pentagram
Service
Commission Management
Location
12 sites across London
A permanent commission for twelve sites across London
Designer Marina Willer of Pentagram was commissioned by Tideway to create a unifying visual identity for a series of bronze plaques installed at 12 locations across London. Marina was invited to pitch for this project as recognition of her long time passion for street covers and following the success of her project Overlooked. Now part of the V&A permanent collection, overlooked is a series of prints made of rubbings of street covers across London.
Marina and her team developed a bespoke artwork that reflects the transformational significance of the Thames Tideway Tunnel for London, while honouring the contribution of more than 20,000 people who helped deliver a cleaner River Thames.
The design celebrates the concept of London as a melting pot of cultures and also expresses the fluidity of the river where the project is centred.
Each plaque features a moiré interference pattern – created by overlaying similar but slightly offset forms – with a central disc as its primary visual element. The undulating surface interruptions, articulated through varying levels of bronze relief, evoke the movement of water and echo the tunnel’s circular form.
“It was an absolute honour to design a new street cover (plaque) for this important project that replaces the Victoria sewage across the river Thames. ”
Inscribed along the outer edge of each plaque are the words:
‘THAMES TIDEWAY TUNNEL CONSTRUCTED 2016–2024’,
alongside the celebratory statement:
‘A HIDDEN FEAT OF ENGINEERING AND THE WORK OF 20,000’
Each plaque measures 600 x 600 mm and is installed at key locations across the city:
West London: Putney Embankment, King George’s Park, and Carnwath Riverside
Central London: Chelsea Quay, Heathwall Quay, Effra Quay, Tyburn Quay, and Bazalgette Embankment
East London: Chambers Wharf, Earl Pumping Station, Deptford Church Street, and King Edward Memorial Park
These plaques now stand as lasting markers of an extraordinary civic achievement – one both hidden beneath the city and deeply embedded in its future.
“It was very exciting to design with my team an object that transcends our area of specialism and will be in many spots around London for much longer than our existence.”
Marina Willer is a graphic designer and filmmaker with an MA in Graphic Design from the Royal College of Art. Before joining Pentagram as a partner, she was head creative director for Wolff Olins in London. During the course of her career, Willer has led the design of major identity schemes for Tate, Natural History Museum, Southbank Centre, Serpentine Galleries, Oxfam, and designed many exhibitions such as Stanley Kubrick for the Design Museum in 2019.
Willer’s first feature film, Red Trees, premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and was released worldwide by Netflix in 2018. Her films have been shown at Fondation Cartier in Paris, the ICA in London and prestigious film festivals worldwide. During the course of her career, Willer has been the recipient of a variety of industry honours, and she is consistently recognised as a leading figure in UK design. She was been awarded the title Royal designer for the Industry in 2022.
For more information see: www.pentagram.com/about/marina-willer
Cast by The Arch Bronze Foundry in Putney.
For more information see:
www.tideway.london