Published: 03 November 2011
by RICHARD OSLEY

THE Belgian Tourist Office is to beam a Remembrance Day video onto the side of Camden Town Hall.

Two sides of the council’s headquarters in King’s Cross will be used for the five-night display next week.

Projectors will be placed at the Renaissance Hotel and at O’Neills pub, with organisers adamant that there is no prospect of drivers on Euston Road being blinded by the show.

The film will be used to commemorate the First World War and remember its victims. It is considered a tasteful first step into allowing the council’s main offices to be transformed into a canvas for light displays.

Due to the Town Hall’s location next to one of London’s busiest roads and being close to important transport links, giving permission for images on a regular basis could become a money-spinner for the council.

If persevered with, conservative estimates suggest the council could command more than £500,000 a month if it allowed advertising to be beamed onto its buildings.

Allowing sponsors and advertisers to muscle in on council services has always opened up a divisive debate with some councillors believing parks and libraries could be privately sponsored.

The planning permission applications for next week’s Belgian Tourist Office events said: “The storyboard of the loop looks at the first and last victims of the war; images will be played on a loop lasting around 5 minutes.

Images will be in a colour scheme of black, white and red.”

The films will be shown between 5.30pm and 11pm. Staff have been asked to remember to close their blinds and turn off their office lights when they leave work.