The Quakers have created a map showing how much of London the Blood Swept Lands and Sea of Red art installation would cover if it represented those from all nations killed in the first world war

What would the Tower of London poppy exhibition look like if it included the global dead of world war one?

The hugely popular Tower of London art installation Blood Swept Lands and Sea of Red by Paul Cummins and Tom Piper features 888,246 ceramic poppies – one for each of the British fatalities of the first world war. The poppies fill the moat of the Tower.

But how much of London would the exhibition fill if it depicted the total number of people from every country killed in the war – soldiers and civilians, allies and enemies – as opposed to the UK dead?



The Quakers have created this map to answer that question, and it shows 19.5m poppies flowing out of the Tower along both banks of the Thames as far south-west as Millbank, snaking around parliament and up the Mall to Buckingham Palace.



The Quaker map. Photograph: Quakers/Google

Detail from the map, around the Torwer of London. Photograph: Quakers/Google

An aerial view from the Shard of visitors to the Tower of London poppy installation. Photograph: Hannah Mckay/EPA