Apocalyptic vision of capital crippled by global warming

Dramatic images of the capital transformed by the devastating effects of climate change are to be shown in new galleries at the Museum of London.

The apocalyptic scenes of Piccadilly Circus under water and a frozen Thames were created by London creative communications firm GMJ.

They take different extreme scenarios from environmental reports. The visions range from giant freezes if the Gulf Stream stops flowing, to mass flooding if rising water levels from melting icecaps are compounded by sinking land masses.

The museum intends to display one illustration, The Future of London, showing the skyline in both the near and far future, blown up to six feet by 18 feet.

Others will be viewed in a giant book in the new Galleries of Modern London to open in May next year.

Didier Madoc Jones, managing director of GMJ — which works with planners and architects to visualise their designs using digital technology — said they were thrilled the museum wanted to show them. He said: "The images can be very useful in making certain possibilities real to people.

"When you describe flooding at a certain level, people don't understand what it means. But when you show them a picture of London under water, people think, Crikey, that's pretty bad'. We want people to think.

"The images were originally done at the time of the G8 in Tokyo but what we're seeing in Copenhagen is Western governments still trying to walk away from their responsibilities. People have to wake up to what is going on."

Elizabeth Scott, the assistant curator on the project, said: "The museum is interested in the past, but also in the future."

The work will go on show near an installation called Capital Concerns, an interactive table with a projection of the Thames that will raise different issues of potential concern to Londoners — from the growing shortage of burial space to the possibility of flooding. Visitors will be able to vote on different options for tackling them.