Tower of London flames: Remembrance Day is the last chance to see stunning memorial for Armistice centenary

Sophie Williams12 November 2018

The 10,000 memorial flames at the Tower of London to mark the centenary of the armistice will be on display for the last time on Remembrance Sunday, November 11.

The installation, named Beyond the Deepening Shadow, contains 10,000 flames lit by hand in the empty moat encircling the tower.

Nightly ceremonies have been taking place since November 4 and finish today on Remembrance Sunday at 9pm.

Thousands of people have been flocking to the area nightly with queues for the viewing platform an hour and a half long on some days.

Tower of London Beyond The Deepening Shadow ceremony

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The 10,000 flames represent not just the soldiers who lost their lives, but all those who were bereaved or affected by the war.

People view thousands of flames in the dry moat of the Tower of London 
AFP/Getty Images

Each flame is ceremonially lit creating a circle of light around the tower as a powerful symbol of remembrance and the end of the First World War.

The lighting begins after a flame is brought down from the Tower of London and into the moat.

A Beefeater stands in silence at the memorial

A team of volunteers then proceed to light the rest of the installation, gradually creating a circle of light, radiating form the Tower as a powerful symbol of remembrance.

Lighting takes 40 – 50 minutes and the flames remain lit for around four hours.

Tribute: flames fill the moat of the Tower of London ahead of Remembrance Sunday (photo: Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)
In Pictures via Getty Images

The spectacle is accompanied by a sound installation that contains words from War Poet Mary Borden’s Sonnets to a Soldier.

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