Tourists and Londoners alike flooded to Covent Garden this weekend to figure out how the market appeared to be floating.

British artist Alex Chinneck is the man behind the installation which makes it look like the 184-year-old market building in the famous piazza is levitating 10 feet above the ground in a scene more reminiscent of Harry Potter.

Crowds have been gathering around the building since it was installed last week to suss out how exactly the building is floating above the broken columns.

Entitled 'Take my lighting but don't steal my thunder', more than 100 people worked on the piece, including water jet cutters, carvers, set builders, scenery painters, structural engineers, carpenters and a robot.

A total of 14 tonnes of steel were used and a tonne of paint.

Mr Chinneck, who also designed an upside down building in Southwark and a 'sliding house' in Margate, told the Independent: "The thunder and lightning comes from the two separated sections of the building - they are forever together but always apart.

"I also liked how the silhouette of the cracked architecture shared the aesthetic of a lightning bolt. The narrative of the installation has a cataclysmic feel and thunder and lightning typically accompany such a theatrical scenario.

"I incorporated the saying ‘steal my thunder’ as I like to include common expressions in my titles to lend them a pleasing familiarity.

"The hovering section suggests as though it is floating away but the dense stone base feels extremely grounded, hence the request take one but leave the other."

The artwork will be in the East Piazza until October 24.