The worldwide craze for 'love locks' - New York puts its foot down

[bubblesmcgrath]

Do they throw the keys into the river after locking the lock?
If so, the fish will be thinking ...
"Hmmm isn't this romantic and artistic"
"No it's not you silly frog spawn...it's polluting your gills"
"But it's sooo pretty"
"Whatever"

 

[editor]

for me and you, perhaps. but not for the people who put it there.

How do you know this to be true? Have you interviewed them to find out their fascinating tales?

 

[Greebo]

<snip> Fucking naff bollocks.

FTR bollocks are not naff although yours may be and I'm not keen on checking.

 

[SikhWarrioR]

next time a royal dies instead of chucking flowers at the cortege as it passes, everyone should hoy massive padlocks at the car. Respectfully.

Surely bricks would have a greater impact and the queen was whinging about how run down buck house has become recently

 

[NoXion]

How strange. Now if it were easy to just remove what they're attached to and slip them off a few bob is ready down the old scrappy's.....

A decent set of bolt cutters can't be that expensive. I reckon it wouldn't take too long to make the money back.

 

[joustmaster]

How do you know this to be true? Have you interviewed them to find out their fascinating tales?

of course not.
I have looked at them and read the odd one in passing. They are put there by couples in love. And I'm sure to them its interesting and nice to them.

Do you think people just see the padlocks and stick their own on for no reason other than to copy the other?

 

[EastEnder]

How do you know this to be true? Have you interviewed them to find out their fascinating tales?

I can conceive of no hyperbole sufficiently extreme to truly express just how much I would not want to hear those tales....

 

[kittyP]

I think it's nice but I understand stand it being an issue to the structural integrity of bridges.

 

[spanglechick]

Depending in where they are, I think they're lovely. Rather like graffiti, really, context is all.

I wonder how it started, as a thing to do. How it got its commonly understood meaning...

 

[Teaboy]

FTR bollocks are not naff although yours may be and I'm not keen on checking.

You've never been hit by a football square in them.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

You've never been hit by a football square in them.

if Greebo has balls they'd be made of iron

 

[Teaboy]

if Greebo has balls they'd be made of iron

Doesn't matter, nothing can stop the remorseless pain when you've but hit middle stump.

 

[steeplejack]

of course not.
I have looked at them and read the odd one in passing. They are put there by couples in love. And I'm sure to them its interesting and nice to them.

Do you think people just see the padlocks and stick their own on for no reason other than to copy the other?

it seems to be vapid social-media age narcissism and not much more, to be honest.

OUR STORY lives on forever in a public space. #soinlove #foreveryoung #padlockedtogether #us4life

fuck off.

 

[DotCommunist]

it seems to be vapid social-media age narcissism and not much more, to be honest.

OUR STORY lives on forever in a public space. #soinlove #foreveryoung #padlockedtogether #us4life

fuck off.

I'm not sure they had social media in the town of Pompeii where some of the earliest boasts/declarations of love have been found carved into the bones of buildings

 

[steeplejack]

nor did they have people leaving Roman era padlocks on bridges.

 

[ChrisFilter]

nor did they have people leaving Roman era padlocks on bridges.

They certainly had the equivalent.

 

[krink]

i prefer old fashioned, romantic graffiti....

 

[Fuchs66]

I've always found the idea that hating a forced day of consumerist shite makes you unromantic an odd one.

It would depend what you do, if you think that Valentines day has to be a consumerist shite day then I can understand it. I don't see it like that for me it's a day where you can really go out of your way to make a statement about how much you love somebody and that has nothing to do with consumerism.

 

[editor]

It would depend what you do, if you think that Valentines day has to be a consumerist shite day then I can understand it. I don't see it like that for me it's a day where you can really go out of your way to make a statement about how much you love somebody and that has nothing to do with consumerism.

Why do you need a designated day to do that? If you really love someone, surely you'll have no need of 'special days'?

 

[Fuchs66]

I can't remember where I was (pretty sure it was in London going senile) but they had build a metal structure specifically for people to put locks on. Maybe that's the way forward with this one.

In Moscow they do similar there are metal trees that people can hang locks on running down the centre of a bridge.

 

[Fuchs66]

Why do you need a designated day to do that? if you really love someone, you'll have no need of 'special days'?

You don't neither do I but then again why have any "special" days?

 

[editor]

In Moscow they do similar there are metal trees that people can hang locks on running down the centre of a bridge.

That's not so bad because they're not trashing/defacing the bridge.

 

[Fuchs66]

That's not so bad because they're not trashing/defacing the bridge.

Precisely, I very much understand the concerns with attaching thousands of locks to the structure of a bridge, but is it so difficult to set something up like this? (well obviously it isn't Moscow seems to have managed quite well), rather than counter it, local authorities should perhaps try to meet what is obviously a need for some. (I have to admit there is a lock on one of those trees with my name on it)

E2A it wasn't however a scrawled with permanent marker version, its an engraved brass padlock! Very well done actually.

 

[editor]

Mind you, the craze will probably be as dead as clackers in a year or two.

 

[Manter]

I've seen this in a couple of cities, but I thought it was an eastern european thing...... Im clearly wrong.

Budapest39 by simbojono, on Flickr

Budapest38 by simbojono, on Flickr

26 355 by simbojono, on Flickr

Those are quite interesting.... It's just a random fence made to look quite visually arresting

 

[bubblesmcgrath]

How do you know this to be true? Have you interviewed them to find out their fascinating tales?

It's a bit like lovers carving their names on a tree or writing on a wall. The close up photos show names and hearts on some of the locks so it seems to be a lovers' token and as such each lock will in some way mean something to the owner/s.
It's not new. Lovers have made their marks probably from as far back as cave dwellers.
The idea is growing on me I have to say........I've not seen it over here yet.....
.....wonder where I can get an unusual lock...hmmmm.....

 

[editor]

It's a bit like lovers carving their names on a tree or writing on a wall. The close up photos show names and hearts on some of the locks so it seems to be a lovers' token and as such each lock will in some way mean something to the owner/s.
It's not new. Lovers have made their marks probably from as far back as cave dwellers.
The idea is growing on me I have to say........I've not seen it over here yet.....
.....wonder where I can get an unusual lock...hmmmm.....

Whatever amazing padlock and heart rending message you add to it will swiftly be subsumed under a mountain of other cheap locks with near identical messages before eventually being cut off by a pissed off municipal worker.

I'd say choosing a tree in a forest is still a better way to leave a mark.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Mind you, the craze will probably be as dead as clackers in a year or two.

I miss clackers.

 

[peterkro]

Fucking hell this has being going on for years it has even reached NZ:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_locations_with_love_locks

 

[editor]

This lamp post looks a bit unhappy with all the lock action going on.