Light Neville Street

http://www.holbeckurbanvillage.co.uk/nevillestreet/#/home/

Light Neville Street is a recently completed arts installation on Neville Street, under City Station in Leeds. The project has been commissioned by Leeds City Council at a cost of £4.6m to help make this gateway entrance to the city more pleasant.

I saw the installation for the first time last week while collecting information for a college project. It consists of two parts; the visual installation on the East Wall and the sound installation on the left. Together, they create an atmospheric environment within the city. The west wall is the most interesting I believe. It is covered in hundreds of LED lights that create a new pattern every day- infact the same pattern won't be repeated for another 20 years. On the East Wall there is an illusion as you walk past, but this has limited success. The audio installation is interesting and adds to the existing noises of the trains above.

One thing I think it fails to do is quieten the traffic noise in the tunnel. The tunnel is certainly more pleasant than it was before, but traffic noise still dominates over the arts installation- something the installation was intended to rectify. I also think that the project would be better if the LED lights were also used on the West Wall as well as the East. The sound installation could still exist if this was done too. While the static patterns are interesting, I would love to see the lights constantly changing to create a dynamic, moving installation.

Light Neville Street has greatly improved this entrance to Central Leeds without doubt. I have no major criticisms of the project, but I am sure that other residents of the City will have huge reservations over the astronomical cost of a small arts project.