A sea of ceramic poppies round the Tower of London marks WW1 centenary

It’s 100 years since Britain entered the First World War and to mark the centenary, the Tower of London is being surrounded by nearly 900,00 ceramic poppies. Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red is the brainchild of artist Paul Cummins and stage designer Tom Piper and will grow between now and November when there will be 888,246 flowers in the dry moat, one for every British or British Colony soldier killed during the fighting.

It’s already a spectacular sight – particularly where the poppies flow out of one of the Tower’s windows – so we can only imagine how powerfully poignant it will be come November when the models encircle one of London’s most famous landmarks.

It’s not always successful when contemporary art tries to mark historical events, but this is a project we feel strikes exactly the right note.