Love locks - basically just vandalism?

[SnoozingFox]

Piece on the One Show about those people who attach padlocks to bridges and it's being pushed as an "awwww isn't this lovely, it's a gesture of love, people come back every year to see their lock, such as shame when they have to be removed" and I'm sitting thinking the opposite.

It's no different from scratching your initials into the bricks of a castle, or spray painting a wall. Vandalism. Nobody cares that some random bridge is where you had your first date or your boyfriend proposed. Nobody wants to walk across a city centre bridge covered in padlocks which the council then eventually have to pay to remove.

Leave no trace.

If they split up do they go back to the bridge to remove their lock?

It’s more like littering than vandalism.

I quite like looking at the names etched into castles it shows their history. I have never figured out why we celebrate it in the past but it is unacceptable now.

If you woke up and felt cute, ice a fucking cupcake.

Bakewell is always rammed. There's no shortage of people visiting and spending money there.
I'm sorry for your loss.
However, I think this trend has become a problem.

A couple of reasons, I think. Firstly, we have far fewer words left from people who lived in previous centuries than we’re all going to leave behind, so there’s value there. Also, far fewer people were visiting places - no overtourism in the eighteenth century. So, you get a small collection of graffiti that doesn’t ruin the wall or whatever. Imagine if every fifth visitor to the colosseum scratched their name into it - the whole thing would be defaced in weeks.

Someone scrawling "Dan 4 Jade 4eva 1986" in a historical monument doesn't show the history of the building. Unless you're talking about genuinely historical graffiti, like the Roman political slogans at Pompeii, or something that was etched on a castle in the 1500s or something? If that's what you meant then surely you can see that is totally different from a tourist doing it? One of the worst I have seen are the idiots who scrawl their initials etc into the walls of the houses in Herculaneum. Now that's vandalism

I like them.

I'm convinced that some of the people who want to deface things like the Colosseum are genuinely so thick that they don't actually realise the significance of the thing they are visiting. They just go because they've seen photos and think it's what they "should" go to see (and for Instagram likes, of course).

One of those things that was cute when the first person did it.

Agree - it’s quite possible for something charming and meaningful to become tedious and antisocial when it gets too popular. I think this started out in one specific place and was the ‘thing’ in that place. That’s a nice story - unique, original. It’s the very opposite when people mindlessly replicate anywhere and everywhere.

It is a stupid trend, done by idiots with no thought for anything other than their own "look at us, we are so special". As others have said, take a photo. Or pick up a bag of litter and dog shit instead. How great that would be if it became an Instagram trend. Honestly nobody cares about your relationship, which will probably be over this time next year, keep it to yourselves. AND DON'T THROW THE KEYS INTO THE RIVER.

A very beautiful bridge near me, with railings depicting local history in the metalwork, is being ruined by these selfish and mindless people. The council cut them off but still they get left there.

On the subject of coins in trees, I once counted over £80 hammered into a fallen tree in the Lake District. Many coins were damaged by being bashed. Just imagine if those coins, and all the others in the same beauty spot were given to the Mountain Rescue or another charity instead.

People's mindlessness really depresses me sometimes

It really isn't fine.

'They can be cut off' by who? Ffs

This channel has several videos on the problems the cause in Prague. They even have tat sellers near the bridge who sell the locks, remove them a few days later and then sell them again. It is a tacky, destructive thing to do, totally selfish and is pushing more money into China, causing pollution, and us totally unnecessary. If you love someone, buy them a box of choccys or have their name tattooed on your arse, but don't deface and damage public areas.

People don't understand that the excess weight and clipping a padlock causes strain to the bridge and other things they attach padlocks to.

It looks a mess too. I want to see the beautiful ironwork, not metal made in China.

Yes it's attention-seeking bollocks, done by idiots to put on social media.

https://nypost.com/2016/10/06/city-is-sick-of-couples-leaving-love-locks-on-brooklyn-bridge/

Says that before they were banned, New York was spending $100k a year removing these things. I appreciate that not everyone has the same tastes and ideas about what is cute and what is not cute. But there are lots of other things which are "cute" which do not involve permanently changing a structure - until someone comes along with a set of bolt cutters.

How is it not littering though - you are leaving something behind which was not there before, and is not naturally found in that environment. It is just the same as dropping your crisp packet in the street or fly tipping. The "leave no trace" thing is what tourists are always told in Scotland - it's not some deep philosophical thing about not making an impact with your life, it simply means take your rubbish with you, when you visit a beauty spot or big tourist attraction do nothing to change that for the next person.

I have never heard of coins being hammered into trees - why on earth do people do that?

When we went on our Honeymoon in Venice, we were told about a “lovers bridge” where you could pay to “lock your love”.
We eventually found it and paid to have entry, a lock put on and a photograph of us with the lock as the sunset behind us.
It was the cutest, most romantic thing we have ever done, but ours was the only lock on the bridge. Thinking about it now I would assume that because you buy the locks from the staff, they have a key or something to remove it and just pass it to the next couple daft enough to pay. It cost us a fair fortune, but it really was a romantic moment, on our Honeymoon in the most romantic city ever.
This was a fair while ago now though.

People are idiots. Nobody cares about their relationship. It’s performative, attention seeking nonsense.

The representation of being locked into a relationship is terrible 😢 imo

the eyesore is just as bad

I don't like the idea that padlocks adorn Pero's bridge in Bristol harbour.

Pero was a boy who was enslaved and brought to the UK from the Caribbean. He would have been held in chains and locked to his fellow slaves.

Exactly. Things that are "cute" and "romantic" are things shared by the couple. They're usually private.

I watched the Prague video posted upthread - the weight of these things is incredible! It's easy to see why it can become a real issue when there are thousands of locks.

Surely, the most romantic thing you did was get married?

I totally get what you're saying - very inappropriate. But for people who think it's "cute", I think you are expecting too much to engage in that level of thought.

Quite 🙄