This trail of twelve snowmen has been arranged by the Fleet Street Quarter in London. A set of special models of Santa depicting themes from the Twelve Days of Christmas has been set up in the City of London around Farringdon and St Pauls for the festive period. With the aid of a map the idea is to find all the snowmen and I thought this would be a nice challenge to occupy what turned out to be a pretty drizzly day. Most of the rest of London seemed to be doing it as well.
The detail on the map left something to be desired with the snowmen marked nowhere where they really were so some detective work was needed as well. I failed to find no. 9 but all the other eleven are shown below, each sat on a plinth with details of the theme and information about the specially commissioned artists. They are shown in numerical order, not the order I visited them in which was very random, starting from Blackfriars Bridge and ending at the Millenium Bridge.
Snowman 1 just off Chancery Lane with the partridge in a pear tree, the most westerly of the twelve. Then two turtle doves, one on his back, on snowman 2 in Plough Place.
Nos 3, French Hens and 4, Calling Birds, in the same maze of streets as 2.
Five Gold Rings, distributed front and back, in a very wet Holburn Circus. Then six geese on number 6. In this area there were loads of road works which I had to dodge around.
Seven Swans a Swimming a little away from the advertised Ludgate Circus. Then Eight Maids a-Swimming in Gough Square keeping Samuel Johnson's cat Hodge company.
I missed snowman 9. It was to be the first one on my walk but although I walked the narrow street the map indicated I saw nothing. I intended to go back but for some reason wrongly ticked it off on my sheet so forgot. It seems it was in the very narrow St Brides Passage passing the nearby church. But I did find Ten Lords a-Leaping in the similarly obscure Playhouse Yard. The snowmen have patterns on their backs as well, as shown here.
Eleven Pipers Piping was even more hidden, in New Bell Yard near St Pauls, a narrow alleyway I only found after a Google search. Twelve Drummer Drumming was a lot easier, in the busy Old Bailey
Having finished, as I thought, I crossed the Millenium Bridge and walked along to London Bridge where I had an excellent turkey Christmas Lunch in the Anchor before heading home.