London has a habit of throwing up odd spectacles. But the activity down on the Southbank of late has been of an altogether otherwordly nature.

HostelBloggers was strolling along, minding our own business, when we stumbled upon this rather intriguing art installation:

Since it’s not absolutely clear what it is, perhaps a description’s in order: It’s supposed to be the arse-end of an alien spaceship, cordoned off, and surrounded by shadowy ‘men in black’ style agents. And the fact that it’s crash-landed next to the London Mayoral HQ, and is buried in what appears to be steaming cow manure, seemed rather fitting…

There’s obviously something extraterrestrial in the air at the moment: Further along, by the National Theatre (it wasn’t actually on the same day, but, for the purposes of a good post, we’ll say it was!) we came upon these colorful characters:

They stood up on a concrete bench by the National Theatre, did this odd (but perfectly synchronized) dance, and then dispersed into the crowd, only to reform and continue the routine a few seconds later.

London’s Southbank is just one of those places: alongside the National Theatre, the Hayward Gallery, the Tate Modern and the British Film Institute, there are street performers, music festivals, art installations and all manner of performances and happenings. 

As the sign in the background of the above photo says ‘Watch this space’…