LONDON.- Hoxton’s PEER has transformed its street-facing windows with a bold and colourful message of hope while the health crisis and its wider impact continues. The ten-metre glazed façade at 97 & 99 Hoxton Street, East London combines rainbows with Miranda’s lines from Shakespeare’s The Tempest:

O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world
That has such people in ‘t!

Acclaimed for its public realm and community engagement projects, and delivered with the conviction that art should be part of everyday life, PEER has used the ubiquitous symbol of gratitude and support for UK care workers with striking graphics by Fraser Muggeridge Studio. Miranda’s quotation also appears in Turkish, Polish, Spanish, French, Chinese and Bengali, reflecting some of the more widely spoken languages in Hackney. The borough currently has the third highest fatality rate in the country for Covid-19.

The historical and contemporary links between William Shakespeare and Hoxton are strong. These are acknowledged today in many of the local names around the Arden Estate where PEER is located, and the estate itself is named after The Forest of Arden. Across the road is The Macbeth pub, nearby is Regan Way, and much of the housing is also named after Shakespearean characters such as Caliban Tower or Juliet, Falstaff, Celia, Oberon and Miranda House.

Ingrid Swenson, PEER Director said: ‘The Tempest has provided the inspiration for this project, particularly as it is widely held that the greater the storm, the brighter the rainbow. Shakespeare is known to have continued working through outbreaks of Bubonic plague when it hit London in the early seventeenth century, and PEER hopes that Miranda’s words of wonder express optimism about the possibility of new beginnings.’

PEER is currently closed to the public due to government restrictions. The window display will remain in place during the closure.