Where to find Longplayer
The original Longplayer installation, running since the 31st December 1999, is situated inside the 19th century lighthouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf.
In addition to the listening post, 234 singing bowls, used as a part of the 66-foot-wide orchestral instrument to perform Longplayer Live, are on display. The steel structure, designed by Ingrid Hu, was commissioned to display and store the bowls and was installed in autumn 2012. Each tier of the structure, containing 39 bowls positioned sequentially, corresponds to one of the six concentric rings of the Longplayer Live instrument.
Opening Hours:
open every Saturday and Sunday, 11am – 5pm
(winter times, October – March inclusive, 11am – 4pm)
No booking necessary, but visitors are advised to check the News page for any last minute schedule changes.
There is unfortunately no step free access to the Lighthouse / Longplayer. The staircase leading up to the top of the Lighthouse is narrow, fairly steep and allows for a maximum of 6 visitors at a time.
Free of charge, though donations are welcome.
By Train: DLR train to East India. Do not take the bridge across the road to the offices.
Take the stairwell nearest the riverside and turn right (east) along the main road, Aspen Way. This will take you up to a roundabout. Go around this, keeping the river to your right, and down the slip road to Orchard Place.
By Tube: To Canning Town, Jubilee Line, followed by a 12 min walk. Just after the ticket machines, take left exit from the station up the stairs towards Bow Creek/City Island. Outside the station cross the red pedestrian bridge and walk through City Island until you get to a cab tree sculpture. Keep left and follow the blue signs for Trinity Buoy Wharf.
By Bus: D3 bus to Leamouth / Orchard Place.
By Boat: You can take a boat from the centre of London to QE2 pier, which is on the opposite bank from the Lighthouse. From there, take a Jubilee Line train to Canning Town. One stop on the DLR takes you to East India. For schedules and information visit the Thames Clippers website.
By Car: Follow signs to Leamouth on the A13 or from Aspen Way. At the Leamouth roundabout, take the Lower Lea Crossing exit. Almost immediately, go left after the bridge. At the T-junction turn right onto Orchard Place and follow the road round to Trinity Buoy Wharf. Please note there is no public parking on site.
Thanks to Urban Space Management, in particular Eric Reynolds and John Burton, and to the Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust for their continuing generous support of Longplayer and in making this listening post possible, through the funding of the bowl display and the lighthouse invigilators.
Listening Posts
UK
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Official Website
EUROPE
Poperinge, Belgium
A temporary listening post is installed at the Watou Arts Festival from July to September 2024.
USA
San Francisco
The Long Now Foundation Museum Fort Mason, San Francisco
Official Website
Above is a map of every Longplayer listening post to have existed (historical and contemporary).
The Longplayer Archive, Goldsmiths
Longplayer’s archive is held at Goldsmiths, University of London, and contains over 24 years of material from its conception to the present day. The archive contains notebooks, papers relating to scores and software, paper re: early conceptions, developments and experiments, hand-drawn graphic scores, general administrative papers, publications, events planning papers, press and media papers, and Longplayer Trust papers. The archive was curated by Longplayer Trustee, James Bulley, and Lorenzo Prati.
You can view a catalogue of current holdings here.
The archive is accessible to all by appointment. In order to make an appointment, please email special.collections@gold.ac.uk and state the collection you wish to visit and the folders you would like to view.
