ELLE.COM/UK Nove mbe r 2O19 121n Justin Simons’ desk sits an old hardback copy of
The Elves and The Shoemaker. It’s perched just to the left of
her computer monitor, the sort of sentimental spot usually
taken up by a photograph of a loved one. ‘I love that book,’
she says, motioning towards it. ‘It’s about doing a lovely
thing for someone for no other reason than it will surprise and delight
them. ‘Plus,’ she smiles, ‘It involves beautiful shoes...’
Simons has been helping to surprise and delight Londoners since
she arrived at London City Hall 17 years ago. You’ll maybe recognise
some of the things she’s helped get off the ground. Anya Hindmarch’s
Chubby Hearts Over Londonproject, perhaps. When the designer wanted
to string multiple giant red hearts across the capital in 2O18, each one
attached to a London landmark as a ‘declaration of love’ for the city, she
called Simons. ‘It’s a great idea,’ Simons told her. ‘But it’s going to be
a nightmare to pull off. We’ll give it a go.’ Giving it a go meant Simons
hustling the Civil Aviation Authority as well as the powers that be in the
heritage world, whose nod she needed in order for 29 supersized
inflatable love hearts to be suspended from some of the city’s most
famous Grade I listed buildings. She got the nod and Hindmarch’s
scarlet-red hearts filled Instagram feeds across the world.
Or maybe you’ve crossed Waterloo Bridge at night and seen
the entire river bathed in a rainbow of lights? That’s the Illuminated
River project. It only took almost 15 years to pull off, millions of pounds
in fundraising and a whole bunch of conser vationists’ approval to
check that the fish were OK with it all.
Or, hang on, youmusthave read about
Hatwalk – an event that saw 21 hats placed
on some of London’s most iconic statues in
the dead of night back in 2O12. Milliners
Lock & Co gave Admiral Nelson (and his
52-metre column) a new bicorn hat; Stephen
Jones made a Brighton Pavilion-themed
number for a statue of King George IV, while
Philip Treacy put an iridescent headpiece
on Sir Henry Havelock in Trafalgar Square.
The event took place a week before the
London Olympics... and came second only to
Usain Bolt in the amount of media coverage
it received over that period.
‘Oh, there was alotof persuading and
navigating,’ chuckles Simons as she recalls
the event. ‘Turns out there were kestrels
nesting on the top of Nelson’s Column.
And then there was the wind, so we had to
test the bicorne hat in a wind tunnel. But...’
she smiles. ‘I love surprises. I love the idea
that you can just “happen” upon something.
Things are always so much more powerful
if you don’t expect them.’
Justine Simons’ official job title is Deputy
Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries
in London. Ask her what that actually means, however, and she goes
a bit, well, quiet. After a long pause, she says, ‘If you stripped back
my job, I technically only have to do two things: write a cultural strategy
[for London] and appoint a leadership board to advise the Mayor on
that strategy. Everything else is what we want to do.’O
ELLEFeatureON THE PODIUM
Simons’ team
commissions artists
to feature on
Trafalgar Square’s
fourth plinthIS^ THIS^ the MOST
POWERFUL
WOM A N
in THE UK?
PHOTOGRAPHS byLOTTIE BEA SPENCERAS DEPUT Y MAYOR OF CULTURE LONDON,JUSTINE SIMONS
HAS ONE THE TOUGHEST MOST INFLUENTIAL JOBS IN
T HE COUNTRY. SO WHY, THEN, YOU NEVER HEARD OF HER?WORDS by FARRAH STORR