The Looping Boat

The Looping Boat is a major new public artwork by British artist Alex Chinneck that celebrates the history of Tinsley, Sheffield’s historic waterways and industrial heritage.

The first artwork on water by Chinneck, The Looping Boat takes the form of a 13-metre-long canal boat, whose body behaves in an extraordinary way, performing a six metre-high, gravity-defying, loop-the-loop.

Painted in traditional canal boat colours by a specialist canal boat signwriter and featuring the Tudor Rose (the assay mark of Sheffield), the boat also bears the name ‘The Industry’, after the first vessel to navigate the Sheffield & Tinsley Canal when it opened in 1819.

Located on the Sheffield & Tinsley Canal, between locks 4 and 5, near to Meadowhall Shopping Centre, the static artwork appears to be floating on the canal and is positioned away from the navigable channel of the canal.

180-degree view

Visitors can enjoy a 180-degree view of the artwork from the towpath, or from the water by passing boaters, canoeists and paddleboarders. Visitors cannot enter the artwork, which is located on the offside of the canal. This artwork offers a free, year-round, outdoor visitor attraction for the area.

The project is co-funded by British Land and by energy company E.ON, who committed to creating a public artwork as part of its redevelopment of the Blackburn Meadows site, the artwork is welcomed by our charity, Canal & River Trust. Members of the Tinsley Art Project Board commissioned the artist. The Board includes Sheffield City Council, Tinsley Forum, Canal & River Trust, and the project co-funders British Land and E.ON.

This is a collaborative work involving structural engineers, specialist steel fabricators, waterway contractors, professional painters and traditional canal boat sign writers. Without question, this is my most complex and challenging artwork to date.

Artist, Alex Chinneck

Where can I find The Looping Boat?
The artwork is located on the Sheffield & Tinsley Canal, near Tinsley Marina, between locks 4 and 5 of the Tinsley Flight.
- The nearest postcode is: S9 1US
- What3Words: events.dining.plays
- OS grid reference: SK 3939990133
- Find on Google Maps
Getting there
The nearest supertram stop is Carbrook. You’ll need to cross a stepped access only footbridge, then it is approx. two-minute walk along the towpath.
Free parking is available at Meadowhall. There is a ramped footbridge joining the towpath, then it is approx. 15-minutes walk along the towpath. From Tinsley Marina, it an approx. 3-minute walk along the towpath.
From Victoria Quays, it is a 3.5 mile walk along the towpath.

Who is Alex Chinneck?

Alex Chinneck’s artworks make the everyday extraordinary. Best known for his architectural installations, the artist has made buildings melt, hover, bend and unzip. Based in the UK and working internationally, Chinneck’s portfolio includes flagship public installations for London Design Festival and Milan Design Week.

Completed artworks to date include sliding the brick façade from a three-storey property in Margate; constructing a full-size melting house from 7,500 wax bricks; creating the impression that a stone building on London’s Covent Garden Piazza was floating in mid-air; inverting a 37-metre electricity pylon to stand on its very tip; and unzipping the walls, floors and façade of a factory in Milan.

Chinneck has been working in the Sheffield area for eight years and has created multiple artworks in Tinsley during that time, including a sculpture of a car hanging upside down, creating an illusion that was visited by more than 5,000 people over six days.

In 2019, Alex returned to Tinsley with a new sculpture – a knotted post box, which was temporarily installed on a residential street outside Tinsley Meadows Primary Academy.

For more information about Alex Chinneck visit: www.alexchinneck.com