A table and chair suitable for the giants of literature

From Keats to Shelley, D H Lawrence to Deborah Moggach, Hampstead in London has a rich literary history.

The latest artistic creation shrinks dog walkers and cyclists on Parliament Hill to the size of the Lilliputians that populated Swift's 18th-century Gulliver's Travels. The installation, Giancarlo Neri's The Writer, is a wooden table and chair the size of a house. He says it is a "monument to the loneliness of writing", and he chose the location when he learnt of its association with generations of writers. It will be there until 9 October.

The six tons of steel, 1,0001bs of wood, and several hundred nuts and bolts that make up the work were shipped from Rome, where it has been on display for two years. People there used it as a giant sunshade, goalposts, and, briefly, as a homeless shelter. Mr Neri, who has made large installations for 20 years, said: "My installations are public so I leave them to people's goodwill."

Mel Barrett, aged 33, from Hampstead, said: "It is so original it is great. So many writers have lived in Hampstead that it is fitting that it is here. I think it works well that it is so large and surprising."