Elephant Parade at Chelsea

A fine, sunny Saturday afternoon was a fine time to go elephant hunting. 'But you don't have elephants in London' I hear you cry. How wrong you are - we've been invaded by colourful elephants for the last few months, with herds of them appearing here and there and lone elephants wandering round. They've been rounded up and set free to graze in the grounds of Chelsea Hospital.

As the Elephant Parade website says:

Elephant Parade is a conservation campaign that shines a multi-coloured spotlight on the urgent crisis faced by the endangered Asian elephant. Brought to you by www.elephantfamily.org, the event sees over 250 brightly painted life-size elephants located over central London this summer.

The migration of the elephants is underway! Whilst a lot of the elephants are off for a pamper and touch-up, find the indoor herd starting their move to Westfield Shopping Centre from 21st to 30th June and see the rest of the herd at our official viewing days at the Royal Hospital Chelsea on the 25th, 26th and 28th June, from 10am to 7pm. Admission is free and open to the public. Please use the London Gate Entrance on Royal Hospital Road, nearest tube being Sloane Square. No dogs are allowed. For information on our viewing days, download the infosheet (pdf) here.

All of our elephants are for sale by auction and every bid you place is a bid for habitat. Mini elephants are available at Selfridges, 80 Regent St, 6 Foubert’s Place and Greenwich Central Market or at the elephant parade online shop.

I spent a couple of hours happily wandering round the collection at Chelsea and took a mere 300 photos - exactly. Here are a few to give you a flavour of the elephants and what it was like. I was quite surprised at how big and how busy it was - a good thing.