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.

They could do something cute that doesn't involve messing with buildings/structures that don't belong to them though.

Even if it was a lovely sentiment, it's inherently flawed. I thought the point was the lock will be there forever like your love is forever. But when someone comes and cuts it off, is that just a reminder that love is in fact fleeting and unlikely to last forever. Or that your love might be broken by a third party with malicious intentions? I don't get it and it looks a state.

I don;t think it's that deep @Cookiesandcandies . It's a trend for the instagram photo, the people who do it at tourist locations they aren't going to return to won't ever know what happens to their lock.

You're right - it's not that deep... it's shallow and performative 😂 I was countering some of the PP comments about it being a lovely sentiment... when it's just not

Christ they saw you coming!

Maybe for an older couple returning for a big wedding anniversary, there is something cute and romantic about it, but otherwise ….no.

I'm an older person, so is my husband. We've had a significant anniversary. It didn't involve this nonsense, and was still romantic!

You know, if people are prepared to pay over the odds to "rent" a lock which is placed on a bridge for a photo and then removed then that's OK, well done to the enterprising locals who came up with the idea. And I don't blame the people flogging locks at 20 euros a pop to idiots in Prague either, it;s an easy way to make a living. I am blaming the numpties who have never had an original thought in their life and just jump on the latest internet bandwagon.

Well so am I and DH. We don’t subscribe to it either.

In the city where I live (not UK) there’s a bridge with one old rusty lock on and every time I see it I think it is indicative of how little the locals love and/or how rule following they are (secretly I think it’s both - Germans!)

Don't they? I can't think of anyone I know who wouldn't be botheredby that.

Weird statement.

They look beautiful but they do weigh the bridges down so eventually do get removed. Here's an example of one looking lovely before it became untenable.
https://www.alamy.com/love-locks-at-a-footbridge-pegnitz-river-old-town-nuremberg-franconia-bavaria-germany-europe-image229241061.html
More were added until it was heaving eventually
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-nuremberg-germany-14th-jan-2015-countless-padlocks-hang-on-a-footbridge-77647844.html
This was when love padlocks became a big thing all over Germany.
Nuremberg then took quite a clever stance and created a small air balloon metal frame at the end of the bridge near the cinema, which is now where all the locks are displayed.

"Herzensangelegenheit | Echt Nürnberg Locations" https://echt-nuernberg.de/location/herzensangelegenheit

Sorry forgot to show the air balloon.
Sadly, same as metal trees and heart sculptures where you can hang the locks, less is more.
They all look gorgeous until they're heaving.

I agree.
I live in Austria and it's becoming an absolute nuisance in some areas. Salzburg is having problems with locks on one of the footbridges. The extra weight is causing issues because of so many locks on there. The city is constantly having to remove the locks which costs time and money and then within a matter of weeks the bridge is completely covered in locks again.
They look awful and tacky after they've been there for a while. It's not like they look attractive or it creates some kind of living work of art. It just looks shit.

They look beautifu

Again subjective. I don't think a bridge groaning under the weight of cheap locks is beautiful in any way.

I can agree to disagree. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, you are right.

I love glitter and sparkle so when I saw all the different colours luminous in the sunlight on the metal cables, it would brighten up my day. Same as seeing light reflected in dew on a spider's web on wooden ones.

I quite like the manmade frames designed to hold them instead. I have seen a balloon, a tree and a heart. I like decorations though. My favourite time of year is the Easter dressings of wells in Germany.

But I do agree the sheer amount of padlocks can change what can look like an art piece into dreck.

The angel of the north has trees nearby where the bereaved have left ashes, notes, hearts etc
It has happened there unfortunately. That one memorial has become a hundred and now what is in the branches is a mixture of things that can look tacky. It still made me catch my breath though.

Agree. It's wasteful and ugly.

Most love locks I have seen attached to bridges etc, the names/initials and dates are written with a Sharpie or similar. Weather - rain or sun, will eventually rub the writing off.

Personally I love things like this. I find it quite touching and interesting to read the inscriptions and think of all the people who left them.

Can appreciate the need to remove them every so often due to the volume and the weight etc. But I can't get worked up over it, our council tax goes on much worse things like littering and fly tipping.

Just because there's littering and fly tipping doesn't mean to say that this effort, cost and waste is acceptable.
Council tax shouldn't be wasted on dealing with these padlocks.

@BeatrizBoniface Lighten up, is it really a big deal in the grand scheme of things?

It's a discussion forum! Lighten up! Folks will have different opinions! 😉

Not if they've also chucked the key in the river.

Is buying a set of strong bolt cutters at the same time as the padlock an equivalent to a 'practical-but-unromantic' pre-nup in this situation?!

😂

Not so great if you have to spend a 'romantic' hour or two shuffling through thousands of others before you find yours, though - espscially if your eyesight is no longer what it was and/or you've developed aches and pains over the years that make it difficult to bend now!