Located at the base of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square during London Design Festival 2025, What Nelson Sees in collaboration with Google Arts and Culture, offered visitors an unprecedented opportunity to experience London from Nelson's vantage point atop his column, revealing perspectives of the city never before accessible to the public.

The sculpture was comprised of a series of intersecting tubes creating a freestanding structure. These lines formed telescopic viewing portals, inviting visitors to peer through and discover London's skyline from Nelson’s perspective.

Brought to life with Flow, Google’s AI filmmaking tool powered by Veo, these moving vignettes aim to capture the essence of London as a perpetual melting pot and a city of relentless energy, creativity, and reinvention that has continuously transformed itself while maintaining its distinctive character and historic significance.

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What Nelson Sees uses one of London’s most enduring monuments, a column that has stood for almost 200 years, as the anchor for a conversation about the next 200 years. It connects the sweep of London’s history to the possibilities and uncertainties of its future. At its heart it is about perspective, about looking out from where Nelson stands and seeing London: past, present, and future.

With thanks to materials fabricator Steel and Form.