ARBORIALIS is a walk-in inflatable sculpture the size of a small cathedral, and from 24 to 27 September it is sitting in Central Park, East Ham. There is no ticket, no lighting rig and no electricity involved in what you see.
That last part is the bit worth knowing before you go.
Architects of Air have been making these since 1992, and the trick has never changed: the colour is daylight. Sun passes through coloured plastic and the interior becomes a set of glowing domes and tunnels in red, blue and green, with no bulbs, no projectors and nothing to plug in. Which means the weather is not a detail. It decides what you get.
Each Luminarium is handcrafted in Nottingham from more than 3,000 individual pieces, and the founder, Alan Parkinson, designs them out of cathedral architecture, Islamic geometry and natural forms. Over four million people in 47 countries have now been inside one. Almost none of them have been in Newham.
What’s inside this one
ARBORIALIS takes the natural world as its starting point, and comes with a soundscape called Song of Danu by the Irish composer Dr Michael Morris. You walk through winding paths into soaring domes, sit down if you want to, and come out again. Most visits run 15 to 30 minutes, capped at 20 when it is busy.
Practicalities that catch people out: shoes come off before you go in, and prams and pushchairs stay outside. Under-16s need an adult with them.
Why it’s in East Ham
Culture Within Newham is hosting it as part of the Architects of Air Connexus Tour, funded by Arts Council England, which this year visits Boston, Barrow-in-Furness, Accrington and Newham and expects to get up to 12,000 people inside a Luminarium. The tour exists to put work of this scale in places that do not usually get offered it, and entry has been made free here for exactly that reason.
Local schools and community groups get their own private sessions alongside the public ones, and there is a wrap-around programme with local artists built around light, Islamic architecture, inclusivity and place. Culture Within Newham came out of the Creative People and Places portfolio in 2022 and is governed by a consortium that includes Community Links, the University of East London, Blossom Group, Jazanne Arts and the National Cricket League.
It is also one of the most thoroughly accessible things we have covered all year: fully wheelchair accessible, guide dogs welcome by arrangement, no flashing lights at any point, and a Quiet Hour on the Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 12pm capped at forty people. Architects of Air design with wheelchair users and the SEND community specifically in mind, which is not something most immersive experiences in London can say.
The London x London Take: Check the forecast before you commit to the trip, and then treat that as the whole decision. Because there is no artificial light in there, a bright afternoon gives you saturated colour and a grey one gives you a large beige tent. Nobody tells you this and it is the difference between the two visits. Our pick is Saturday or Sunday, when it opens at 11am rather than 2pm and you can go early, and the Quiet Hour is the best slot in the run if you can get into it: forty people instead of a few hundred, in a space designed to be sat in rather than walked through. Twenty minutes at peak is not long, so do not treat this as an afternoon. Pair it with Central Park itself and make a morning of the trip east.
Need to know
- What: ARBORIALIS, a Luminarium by Architects of Air
- Where: Central Park, East Ham, London E6 3AB, east side of the park near High Street South
- When: Thursday 24 and Friday 25 September, 2pm to 6pm. Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September, 11am to 6pm
- Quiet Hour: 11am to 12pm on 26 and 27 September, 40 people
- Price: Free. Booking is not required, though you can reserve a slot online
- Nearest stations: East Ham or Upton Park, both a 10 to 20 minute walk. Buses 58, 101 and 115 stop on High Street South
- Note: Shoes off inside, no pushchairs, under-16s must be accompanied
- More: culturewithin.org.uk
Four days is not long. If it rains all weekend there is plenty more on in our guide to free things to do in London, and the rest of the month is in what to do in London in September.
