30.000 CERAMIC POPPIES PAINTED THE TOWER OF LONDON RED

The Tower of London flooded with tens of thousands of blood-red poppies later this year, marking 80 years since the end of the Second World War. Paul Cummins and Tom Piper's installation, "The Tower Remembers," was open to the public from May 6 to November 11.

More than five million people came to see Paul Cummins and Tom Piper's “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red” instalment of over 888,000 ceramic poppies, which filled the Tower's moat in 2014. For the latest display which ran from 6 May-11 November 2025, almost 30,000 of the original poppies loaned from the Imperial War Museums' collection, and arranged to resemble a 'wound' at the heart of the Tower, from which the poppies formed a crater, with ripples flowing outwards.

The Tower of London itself sustained bomb damage during the Second World War, and one of its Beefeaters, Samuel Reeves as well as a resident, Lily Frances Lunn died when it took a direct hit. “The Tower Remembers” opened to the public in May this year to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day and closed on Armistice Day in November.  The exhibition concluded with a minute’s silence to commemorate Britain’s fallen soldiers and those who contributed to the war effort.