I saw a number of the mysterious Toynbee tiles in the streets of Philadelphia last week. The tiles began appearing in the early 1980s and have since been spotted in cities around the world. Most have become worn or have disappeared as streets get repaved. NPR ran a story about the tiles a couple of months ago. One of these days I'll have to go back and take pictures of the known tiles in better light. This guy seems to be obsessed with the tiles.
If you see any new ones in New York, let me know. For the last few years a copycat has been gluing all the new tiles, the original tiler apparently (retired?)
These copycats are only in Philly. There are dozens of them here, but with the bizarre exception of 1 lone tile off an I-95 in rural Connecticut, no others have been spotted outside the Philly Metro area in about 4 years.
Posted by: steve | 02 November 2006 at 07:35 AM
I've not seen any here in NYC but I'll keep my eye out for them.
Posted by: Joe | 02 November 2006 at 11:04 PM
If I recall the Toynbee tiles are carved out of heavy duty linoleum.
Posted by: Joe | 12 April 2007 at 10:23 PM