As you will have seen from my previous blog post, I was in London over the previous weekend. It wasn’t exclusively for Street Art, but it would have been rude not to get some photos.
I had been to London previously before, so I knew where I wanted to go. Camden and Shoreditch were high on my list.
As my train from the Airport was terminating at Liverpool Street, this gave me a great opportunity to check out Shoreditch.
Well, it would have, if I didn’t wander about and get lost.
I cheated a wee bit by referring to London’s Tourism Website, which informed me that Spitalfields was a good place to visit. I had passed it on my travels, so made an about turn and headed for there.
How right it was. I spotted one piece, decided to walk to the end of the street, then saw more pieces on the next street, and decided to walk to the end of that street to see what there was …. and repeat. I think I covered every street in Spitalfields, which included pieces by Falko and Dan Kitchener, who have recently done pieces in Belfast.
I stumbled onto more Street Art and eventually found Shoreditch. From previous experience, Car Park Attendants were a bit dickish when I tried to snap pieces in Car Parks, so I had to do quick snaps of those pieces rather than setting myself up.
Smokers are a pain in the arse at the best of times, but they all decided to congregate outside Mercure Hotel in Shoreditch, denying me the opportunity of shooting a mural outside it.
There was also a piece with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un being in a band called The Psychos.
By the middle of Friday afternoon, I already had enough Street Art photos to fill a blog for the entire weekend.
On Saturday morning, I headed to Brixton to see the David Bowie mural in it’s current form. I had previously seen the mural, finding it by accident, when I visited Brixton in 2014. It is a rarity amongst David Bowie murals in that it was actually painted when he was alive.
When he died in 2016, the mural became a shrine and meeting point for fans to share their grief.
The core of the mural is now covered in Perspex due to the number of fans writing messages over it. There is now a sign asking fans to write around it and not on it, as well as flowers left by fans at the bottom of the mural.
Not far from the Bowie mural is a mural of the poem The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe, though that has fallen into a state of disrepair.
I walked around Brixton, and stumbled upon some pieces around Brixton Market, including a tribute to various Rappers.
I then headed to Camden, a hotspot for Street Art and found a lot of pieces walking from Camden Underground Station to Camden Lock.
Camden Underground Station is exit only, so I had to travel to Mornington Crescent Underground Station for my onward journey, and the diversion was a stroke of luck, as I spotted more pieces, although it was hard to get photos due to parked vehicles causing an obstruction.
Sunday was spent visiting the more clichéd touristy parts of London, so I didn’t get as much photos as in the previous days, though I did spot a mural just off Carnaby Street.
Heading home on Monday night, Monday was never going to be a busy day, but I made a point to visit Leake Street Tunnel near Waterloo Station, a tunnel dedicated to Street Art which has multi-coloured lighting, which made for some decent photos.
As stated in my main blog about London, I was tempted by the idea of a day trip to Brighton at some point, as it would have been nice to have visited there for the day and get some Street Art photos.
Can’t complain about my lot. Every time I visit London, I seem to find more and more hidden Street Art gems. Hope you enjoy this round-up.
Photo Album 1
Photo Album 2
London Street Art 2016
London Street Art 2014
Camden Street Art 2013
