Hidden London · A Lets Discover map
The Seven Nosesof Soho.
Seven tiny plaster noses are hidden on the walls of Soho and Covent Garden — a secret 1997 protest by artist Rick Buckley. Legend says whoever finds all seven comes into infinite wealth. Here's exactly where to look.
The map
All seven noses, mapped.
Tap any pin for the exact spot, how to find it, and the story behind it. They're small and easy to miss — most sit at about shoulder height, so keep your eyes up.
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The full list
Where to find each one.
Dean Street
A gentle startSoho · Quo Vadis, 26–29 Dean St, W1D
On the wall of Leoni's Quo Vadis. Not immediately obvious, but easier than most once you know to look — and keep your eyes peeled, some spot a second nose nearby.
Like several of the noses, it sits right beside a Soho strip club — a coincidence hunters can never quite unsee.
Meard Street
Big & easy to spotSoho · near the Dean St junction, W1D
A large white nose, high on the brick wall near the Dean Street junction — you'll clock this one in seconds.
Almost certainly not one of Buckley's. One story links it to an old property dispute; another to a 2005 'Living Streets' art project, where street objects 'talked' back to passers-by — this one is said to have made a sneezing sound.
Bateman Street
The hardest to findSoho · beyond the Dog & Duck, W1D
On the far section of the street, past the Dog & Duck pub. It's small and painted the same colour as the wall, so scan the doorways and brickwork slowly.
Widely reckoned the toughest of the seven — so well camouflaged that some aren't convinced it's a nose at all.
D'Arblay Street
The contested oneSoho · D'Arblay St, W1F
Along D'Arblay Street — small and very easy to walk straight past; plenty of hunters give up here.
The great debate of the seven: is it a genuine Buckley, or simply a very old masonry nail that has bent over the years into a nose-like shape? Nobody can agree.
Great Windmill Street
Not where you'd expectPiccadilly · by the old Trocadero, W1D
The trick: there are two stretches of Great Windmill Street. Skip the obvious one and walk down to the section alongside the old Trocadero, between Shaftesbury Avenue and Coventry Street — and mind the narrow pavement and the traffic.
Infamous for sending hunters on wild goose chases — people have mistaken painted-over pipes, and even a lipstick kiss on the Trocadero wall, for the real thing.
Endell Street
Covent Garden's outlierCovent Garden · north from Long Acre, WC2H
Technically in Covent Garden, not Soho — heading north from Long Acre. At roughly shoulder height near the top of the street; one of the easier catches.
By the time they reach Endell Street, most hunters have cracked the golden rule: nearly every nose sits at about shoulder height.
Admiralty Arch
The famous finaleTrafalgar Square · The Mall, SW1A
On the rough stone inside one of the archways, set at about waist height for someone on horseback. Watch yourself — traffic streams through the arch constantly.
The most storied of them all. One tale says it honours the Duke of Wellington, whose nose was so large his silhouette was recognisable across a battlefield — mounted soldiers would rub it for luck riding through. Another claims it's a spare nose for Nelson, standing atop his column in Trafalgar Square opposite.
The story
A secret protest against Big Brother.
In 1997, CCTV cameras were appearing on street corners all over London, and a lot of people saw them as a worrying step towards an Orwellian, “Big Brother is watching you” state. Artist Rick Buckley felt the same — but rather than protest with placards or vandalism, he chose something far more subtle, and far funnier.
Inspired by the Situationists — artists known for sporadic, unsanctioned public acts — Buckley cast his own nose in plaster of Paris and, armed with little more than a toothpaste tube of glue, quietly stuck around 35 of them onto buildings across the capital, from the National Gallery to Tate Britain. Each one was placed deliberately in the eyeline of a CCTV camera — a quiet way to cock a snook at the watchers.
Many were spotted and scraped off within days or weeks. But some survived — and because Buckley never claimed them, all sorts of urban myths grew up around the mysterious noses, including the one that anyone who finds all seven in Soho (never mind that at least one isn't actually in Soho) will come into great wealth.
He kept the secret for fourteen years. It was only in October 2011, under a bit of pressure from his girlfriend, that Buckley finally admitted it all to the London Evening Standard: “I wanted to see if I could get away with it without being detected. The afterthought was that it would be great if these protrusions would become part of the structure themselves.”
Legends & oddities
The stories the noses picked up along the way.
Wellington's nose
The Admiralty Arch nose is the most storied. One tale says it honours the Duke of Wellington, whose nose was supposedly so large his silhouette was recognisable across a battlefield — so soldiers on horseback would rub it for luck. Another says it's a spare nose for Nelson, up on his column opposite.
The imposter
The big white nose on Meard Street probably isn't Buckley's at all. It's often traced to a 2005 “Living Streets” project, where objects around the street “spoke” to passers-by — and this one, so the story goes, made a sneezing sound.
Nose, or nail?
The D'Arblay Street one splits opinion. Some are certain it's a genuine Buckley; others reckon it's just a very old masonry nail, bent over the years into something that only looks like a nose. Go and settle it yourself.
One last coincidence
Finish the hunt with a drink at the Dog & Duck on Frith Street and you'll be standing in George Orwell's old local — the man who wrote 1984, about a world under constant surveillance. For a trail that began as a protest against being watched, it's a fitting place to end. And if noses aren't enough, artist Tim Fishlock hid a set of ears around Covent Garden too — two of them are on Floral Street.
Take the hunt with you.
Get all seven noses on the Lets Discover map — every exact location in your pocket as you walk Soho.