The “Café Wall” Optical Illusion

By Minnesotastan in Everything Else, Video Clips on Jan 2, 2010 at 11:33 am

YouTube link.

Similar in principle to the “tile illusion” previously posted at Neatorama, this one was named after a pattern noticed on the wall of a café on St Michael’s Hill in Bristol, England.  This illusion would make a nice tabletop conversation piece if it were commercially available.

Via Unique Daily.


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  1. Edward
    Jan 2nd, 2010 at 12:26 pm

    If I manufacture it, will you sell it in your store?

  2. Jessss
    Jan 2nd, 2010 at 7:43 pm

    This is called the cafe wall or cafe tile illusion.

  3. Werzzal
    Jan 3rd, 2010 at 9:34 am

    It’s named after the tiled wall of a cafe in Bristol, England – just round the corner from my house.
    There’s more about it here, with a picture showing the wall: http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/ang_cafewall/index.html

  4. Werzzal
    Jan 3rd, 2010 at 9:38 am

    And here it is on Google Streetview
    http://howd.ie/b62Caf3walL1LlU51oN5c3

  5. Minnesotastan
    Jan 3rd, 2010 at 9:49 am

    Jessss and Werzzal, thanks for the information. I’ve adjusted the title of the post and inserted the links into the text.

  6. niclet
    Jan 4th, 2010 at 1:15 am

    The Beaudry subway station in Montreal, inaugurated in 1966, had this exact illusion with the tiles on the interior walls. Unfortunately, it was renovated in 1999 and they scraped the illusion design.


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