the big egg hunt; north, south, east and west
Aiming to break a Guiness World Record – The Faberge Big Egg Hunt in London made great strides!!! And kept us entertained.
With tantalising titles like ‘Scramble for giant eggs is set to begin’ & ‘Humpty Dumpty sits on a wall’ or ‘Egg beats crime’, you could not fail to be curious when opening your newspaper of an evening in London in February.
The first of these titles had a fab photo that showed a group of girls sitting on an open-topped bus, amongst a group of over-sized decorated eggs with Houses of Parliament in the background…..how could you not be curious.
Then a group of beautifully decorated eggs in Potters Field with Tower Bridge behind and the by-line: Ready for the great London egg hunt! & the hunt is on. Sponsored by Fabergé and organised Mark Shand, a number of artists have designed and created 210 wonderful 2.5ft fibre-glass eggs to raise funds for Elephant Family organisation and Action for Children.
Amongst the delightful collection are characters like Humpty Dumpty, who does indeed sit on a wall at Clarence House; commissioned and signed by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, there is also a Busby, a red letter-box a Union Flag and many, many other delightful and beautifully decorated eggs.
It was hoped that 10,000 or more Londoners and visitors would join in the hunt with an aim to break the Guiness World Record for the biggest egg hunt. 30 of the eggs have since been auctioned off to raise funds and you can bid online for the others; with a starting price of £300 the value of these eggs have climbed considerably.
Along the way a couple of the eggs have been stolen and retrieved and returned to their rightful place, and between the 3rd and 9th April they will all come together at Covent Garden to amuse and amaze us.
The eggs were scattered about London, mostly in zone 1 & 2 and the hunt has taken us from Canary Wharf in the east to South Bank in City of Westminster, the City of London, St James’s Park and Green Park, through Mayfair and Covent Gardens, Trafalgar Square, Berkley Square, Grosvenor Square, & Sloane Square to Covent Garden, Neal’s Yard and Seven Dials, Carnaby Street and St Christopher’s, along side streets, into buildings and shops and fancy pants stores (think Fortnum & Mason’s and Liberty’s) and along the way some of the eggs were very cleverly hung up high and unless you are observant, you could walk right on by……I did; a number of times 🙂 This usually entailed a return to the area!!!
The best fun ever, this egg hunt has taken me to places I have never visited before, into buildings I usually walk by and back to places I love…again and again. In my quest to find them all, I confess I have returned to some places a number of times! And others I have walked around till my feet fell off determined to find them all in one go!! You would be amazed at how easy it is to miss a 2.5ft egg that is displayed on a big black box that is at least 2ft high and 2ft wide…..just walk right on by!
how easy to miss this! 🙂
I have been amazed and amused by the number of people who have joined the hunt, some folks found all 209 within a week, and others are still discovering them. I have met folks from all over the world and it is amazing how many are going at this with guns blazing….the prize; a Fabergé Egg with £100,000. One lass did a 24 hour marathon to raise funds for Action for Children and found 207 of the eggs (2 were not at their posts); very impressive. I have done the hunt in stages and finding 48 on one day nearly killed me! My legs and feet were decidedly unimpressed! I managed to find 187!!! Will I find them all? Not likely!
However they will all be together in Covent Garden starting from today and then I shall get to see them all. 🙂 for your pleasure and delight I have made a video of some of the eggs
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