Mr Doodle's Doodle Discovery

We just spent the morning in Leicester Square Gardens watching a grown man in a black-and-white suit turn a crowd of kids (and a few slightly competitive adults) into co-artists… and it was pure chaos in the best possible way.

Mr Doodle’s Doodle Discovery trail is officially live across the West End – five giant two-metre sculptures covered in his signature doodles, parked in Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and St James’s Market until August 30th. Free, screen-free, and exactly the kind of joyful distraction London needs in the summer holidays.

But the real magic happened at the launch. In the gardens he set up a proper workshop, handed out paper, and simply said: draw something. Anything.

Kids went wild with their imagination and one very enthusiastic adult produced something so abstract that I was convinced it was going to be a map of Leicester Square. Mr Doodle then wandered around, picked his favourites, and – in true Doodle fashion – started sketching their ideas straight onto his Blue Robot sculpture right there in front of us. Instant collaboration. Instant legend status with every under-10 in a 50-metre radius. By the end of the workshop sessions, the sculpture was complete! 🤖

Everyone left with a Doodleland colouring book (ours got signed – yes we’re bragging) and a map so you can hunt down the rest of the trail. 🗺️

There’s a bright orange cinema-obsessed fish and a blue robot in Leicester Square, a yellow theatre flower and a pink gallery character in Piccadilly Circus, and a red cyclops celebrating food and drink over in St James’s Market. Spot them all, scan the QR codes, and you might even win tickets to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition plus dinner for four at Gordon Ramsay’s Street Burger. Not bad for a free doodle hunt.

We also managed to grab a few minutes with the man himself between the live sketching and the general joyful mayhem. More of that chat is coming in the magazine (including the bit where he casually named the one London landmark he’d love to claim as his personal canvas for a year…). Let’s just say it involves a very tall pointy building. Afterwards he doodled himself drawing the Shard onto the Blue Robot. Priorities, right?

Go and find them while they’re still fresh. Take the kids, take the sceptical grown-ups, and take a pen if you dare. The West End has officially been doodled – and it’s glorious.

Full trail map and all the extras at artoflondon.co.uk/mrdoodle

(And yes, we’re still staring at our signed colouring book like it’s a minor national treasure.)