Mandela Way T-34 Tank

The Mandela Way Tank in February 2016

The Mandela Way T-34 Tank is a decommissioned tank located on the corner of Mandela Way and Pages Walk in Bermondsey, London, England.^[1] The tank is a Soviet-built T-34-85 battle tank.

It is a former Czech army tank that was used in the filming of Richard III (1995). On completion of the film, it was bought in 1995 by Russell Gray, who lives nearby, for £7,000. He then installed it in its current location on a small piece of scrubland.^[2] The tank was the subject of a work by Cubitt Artists and Aleksandra Mir who painted it pink in 2002.^[3] It has since been repainted by artist Charlotte Meldon in April 2017 back to a more authentic military olive drab. The tank is often graffitied by local graffiti artists and its colour is regularly changed.

Similar graffitied tanks

There are also T-64 and T-72 tanks that have been graffitied in a hippie manner at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, Kiev, Ukraine.

The Monument to Soviet tank crews was a memorial located in Prague, Czech Republic, made up of an IS-2m tank on a pedestal. In 1991, the artist David Cerny painted the tank pink and hoisted a large middle finger over the turret in protest against the controversial monument. The monument was later removed and the tank is now displayed at Military Museum Lešany, painted pink.

Gallery

• 
  The T-34 tank's original military green colour
• 
  The tank painted pink in 2002
• 
  Black and cream, swirling design, December 2008
• 
  June 2009
• 
  Post-2009 design influenced by American-style taxi cabs.
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  The tank in November 2014
• 
  The tank in March 2017
• 
  T-34 in April - July 2017

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mandela Way T-34 Tank.

• More about the tank's history.
• Evening Standard Newspaper – Revealed: the story behind the Soviet tank with its guns trained on council HQ

Coordinates: 51°29.579′N 000°04.962′W / 51.492983°N 0.082700°W / 51.492983; -0.082700