Gum Wall, Gum wall in Pike Place Market, Seattle, United States
The Gum Wall is a brick wall in Post Alley below Pike Place Market in Seattle, entirely covered with chewing gum. The surface appears like a rainbow-colored mosaic made from thousands of sticky pieces layered on top of one another over the years.
Theater guests started sticking chewing gum to the wall in 1993 while waiting in line outside Market Theater. What began as a spontaneous habit turned into a permanent installation that has since become a well-known landmark.
The wall takes its name from theater guests who started pressing chewing gum onto its surface in the early nineties. Today travelers from around the world take part in this unplanned artwork by adding their own colorful pieces, becoming part of a living tradition.
The alley sits below the main entrance of Pike Place Market and can be reached from Pike Street. The area can get narrow, especially on weekends when many people stop to photograph the wall or add their own contribution.
A cleaning operation in 2015 took over five days and removed more than a ton of chewing gum from the surface. Despite this thorough scrub, visitors immediately started adding new pieces afterward, and the wall quickly regained its colorful appearance.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
