Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red was a work of installation art placed in the moat of the Tower of London , England, between July and November 2014, commemorating the centenary of the outbreak of World War I . It consisted of 888,246 ceramic red poppies , each intended to represent one British or Colonial serviceman killed in the War. The artist was Paul Cummins , with setting by stage designer Tom Piper . [1] The work's title was taken from the first line of a poem by an unknown World War I soldier . In wikipedia London October 2014