If you’re wandering around Seattle’s Pike Place Market at a loose end, pop a wad of gum in your mouth and get chewing as you wander over to the Market Theatre on Lower Post Alley. The theatre is the venue for late night improv shows and back in the 1990s, patrons waiting in line for shows started sticking gum on the wall outside. Over time, the wads of gum grew in number, despite theatre staff scraping the wall clean on at least two separate occasions. Eventually they realised they were fighting a losing battle and so the gum wall was born.
The window sills are the most gruesome, with long strings of gum trailing down like multi-coloured gum icicles. People get very inventive with their gum art; I spotted a Swedish flag high up on the wall.
From some angles it looks for all the world like a gingerbread house straight out of Hans Christian Andersen, but with a lot more germs. It has proven so popular that it has been recognised as an official Seattle tourist attraction and to date there are an estimated 750,000 pieces of gum on the wall. It looks like the gum wall might “stick” around for quite some time. Sorry, I couldn’t resist it. 🙂
Where's my backpack? 