World Art Utopia

Under the Weather but Over the Moon by Alex Chinneck, London, UK

A four-storey building front on Blackfriars Road in London, built upside down. At the top, just under the roofline, sits a bright blue shopfront with blue double doors and a boarded window, the painted words “Engineers & Furnishers” upside down on the boards, and below them an upside-down blue enamel sign reading “W.H. Willcox & Co Ltd, Engineers, Furnishers”. Under it are three floors of yellow-brown brickwork with six small blue-framed windows, each with its brick arch below instead of above, and a “For Sale” board hung upside down. To the right, a narrow white-rendered front has a red front door high up by the roof, a lamp hanging beneath it, two windows with dark arches under them and a green drainpipe down the side; a dark passage opens at street level. Scaffolding wrapped in plastic stands to the right, older brick buildings to the left, and a black car drives past on the road.
Artwork FileLondon · UK
Gone2015

Under the weather
but over the moon

Alex Chinneck · “Under the Weather but Over the Moon”, first shown as “Miner on the Moon”, December 2013 · 20 Blackfriars Road, Southwark, London

Photo: Loco Steve / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0; taken 26 October 2014

  • #AlexChinneck
  • #UpsideDownHouse
  • #MinerOnTheMoon
  • #MERGEFestival
  • #BlackfriarsRoad
  • #Southwark
  • #London

For the finale of the 2013 MERGE Festival, Alex Chinneck gave a derelict building from 1780 on Blackfriars Road a new front, built upside down: the shopfront at the top, the front door by the roofline, the brick arches under the windows. It was meant to stay for up to three years. Residents were told it would be demolished in June 2015, and in January 2017 Londonist called it “long gone”.

5 things to know

  1. A false front, not a flipped houseNothing inside was turned over. ianVisits reported that the work was “mounted in front of the existing building on a scaffolding structure”, covered in a wooden frame and board. Dezeen says the brickwork was brick slips, “a kind of flattened brick”, and the white plaster was rendered polystyrene. ianVisits · Dezeen
  2. Even the For Sale signLondonist listed the details: “The doors are at the top, the support arches are at the wrong end of the windows, the drainpipe drains upwards and even the For Sale sign is about-face.” The enamel sign at the top belonged to W. H. Willcox & Co Ltd, which Dezeen says was founded in 1876 on nearby Southwark Street. Londonist · Dezeen
  3. A 1780 stable blockConstruction Management, drawing on the artist’s text, says the building went up in 1780 as livery stables for horses and carriages for hire. By 1880 its ground floor was a pawnbroker, and the passage at the side led to the Tress and Co hat factory, now the Mad Hatter Hotel. Construction Management · Dezeen
  4. Built for free by museum buildersMace project-managed the work and paid for risk assessment, scaffolding and licences. The labour came pro bono from contractors on Mace’s £135m British Museum extension. Its project director said: “A lot of materials have been salvaged from old buildings and reused.” Construction Management
  5. Up to three years, then the bulldozersIn December 2013 London SE1 said the artwork would stay “for up to three years”, until the 1780 building was demolished for the 20 Blackfriars Road towers. In May 2015 it reported that the remaining buildings, “including the upside-down house”, would come down in June. In 2021 Londonist wrote that it stood “for just two years before demolition”. London SE1 · London SE1 · Londonist

Check-in guide

📍
20 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8NY, “just south of Blackfriars Bridge” (Dezeen, Construction Management), on the west side of the road (Southwark Council). A Geograph photographer called it the second-to-last building in the row at 18–26 Blackfriars Road (Geograph).
🏗️
There is nothing left to see. The row was cleared for a new development, which London SE1 reported had been renamed 18 Blackfriars Road in November 2015 (London SE1). In July 2017 Southwark Council said the site had “largely been cleared” (Southwark Council).
🧭
The Maps button points to Geograph’s grid reference for the photo of 7 December 2014, which agrees within about 20 metres with the Flickr location of the photo above. It marks where the facade stood, not anything you can see there now.
📷
The artist’s project page shows the work in photos by Stephen O’Flaherty (alexchinneck.com).
Open in MapsArtist’s page

Sightings

  1. 20134 Dec

    Unveiled for MERGE

  2. 201415 Jul

    urban75 photo post

  3. 20145 Oct

    Geograph photo

  4. 201426 Oct

    Photo at the top

  5. 201421 Nov

    Flickr photo

  6. 20147 Dec

    Last dated photo found

  7. 20155 May

    Demolition set for June

  8. 20166 Jun

    Row’s “last remnants”

  9. 201727 Jan

    Londonist: “long gone”

  10. 202111 Nov

    Londonist: stood two years

  11. 202414 May

    Londonist: lost in 2015

Every stamp links to the dated source. Green stamps are dated photos of the facade (the July 2014 stamp is urban75’s post date); amber stamps are news about the work or the site; the red stamp is the first dated report we found that it was gone. The 6 June 2016 photo shows the cleared row behind hoardings, not the facade itself.

On the record

London SE14 December 2013

Upside-down house is sure to turn heads in Blackfriars Road

“By doing something very simple like re-presenting the everyday world but inverted, it hopefully encourages people to look again and cherish the world around us.”

Chinneck to the local news site, which called the work “Miner on the Moon (Upside Down House)”. He also said: “I’m not against architectural progress; I’m incredibly excited by it.”

Read

Construction Management6 December 2013

Mace builds four-storey upside down house

“Mace was responsible for risk assessment, scaffolding and licensing fees, and also sourced the materials free of charge via a number of sponsors.”

The trade magazine names the pro bono crews: scaffolder Benchmark, masonry firm Lyons & Annoot and general contractor Dhesi Group.

Read

London SE15 May 2015

Malaysian owners to clear 20 Blackfriars Road development site

“Now local residents and businesses have been told that the remaining buildings on the site – including the upside-down house – will be demolished in June.”

The new owner, a Malaysian joint venture called Black Pearl, had bought the site in 2014.

Read

Londonist27 January 2017

The Upside-Down House That’s Not Actually Upside-Down

“There are better upside-down houses in London — this facade on Blackfriars Road by Hackney artist Alex Chinneck… and this horizontal house in Hackney […] except — more disappointment — both of these are long gone.”

Will Noble, in a piece about Canal House on Lisson Grove.

Read

Londonist11 November 2021

Upside-Down London: When The Capital Gets Turned On Its Head

“It stood near Blackfriars Bridge for just two years before demolition.”

Matt Brown, who gives the title as “Under the weather but over the moon”.

Read

The facts

Artist
Alex Chinneck, British sculptor, born 1984; called a Hackney artist at the time (Wikipedia, urban75, Londonist) Checked
Title
The artist’s site uses “Under the Weather but Over the Moon”, and its old project page already did in February 2015 (archived copy); so did a Geograph caption in October 2014 (Geograph). The 2013 press called it “Miner on the Moon” or “Upside Down House” (London SE1, Artlyst, Dezeen, The Independent); It’s Nice That wrote “Miners on the Moon” Conflicting
Unveiled
4 December 2013, as the finale of MERGE Festival 2013 in Bankside (Artlyst, London SE1, The Independent, Dezeen) Checked
Place
20 Blackfriars Road, SE1 8NY, Southwark (Dezeen, Construction Management, urban75, Geograph); map point from Geograph’s 10 m grid reference (Geograph) Checked
Building
Built in 1780 as livery stables; a pawnbroker’s shop by 1880; four storeys. This history comes from the artist’s text, as repeated by the press (Construction Management, Dezeen, Artlyst) Reported
How it was made
A false front on scaffolding in front of the old building: wooden frame and board, brick slips, rendered polystyrene, plaster or foam details (ianVisits, Dezeen), plus salvaged materials and a real enamel sign (Construction Management) Checked
Made with
Mace (project management, scaffolding, licences), with pro bono crews from its British Museum project (Construction Management); donations and volunteers (Dezeen). MERGE was run by Better Bankside and Illuminate Productions (Construction Management) Reported
Planned run
“up to three years” (London SE1); “around for a year, or three” (ianVisits) Checked
Last seen
7 December 2014, in the newest dated photo we found (Geograph). We found no dated photo of it from 2015 Checked
Demolished
Due to come down in June 2015 (London SE1); “long gone” by 27 January 2017 (Londonist); “just two years” after it went up (Londonist); among the buildings “swept away in 2015” (Londonist, 2024). That 2024 sentence also puts the old sausage factory in 2015, which London SE1 reported being demolished in October 2016 (London SE1). We found no dated photo or report of the day it was demolished Reported
Photo
Taken by Loco Steve on 26 October 2014, 13:17, from Flickr via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (Commons, Flickr) Checked
Status
Gone, in 2015 according to Londonist; the exact date is not reported Reported

Related

All sources (23)

This artwork

Dated photos

Demolition

The artist

  • Wikipedia: Alex Chinneck, read 5 October 2026. Born 1984; lists the work as “Under the Weather but Over the Moon” (2013).

Artwork File · Last checked 5 October 2026 · Certainty labels follow How We Verify Art · All Artwork Files