Banksy Street Art Staycation In East Anglia

East Anglia has in the past week or so became home to a spectacular trove of street art that finally this afternoon was verified as genuine Banksy. Banksy has verified a grand total of 10 new pieces of street art and to put this in context, there were only 5 outdoor Banksy artworks at his own Dismaland group show in 2015!


Banksy Chip Snatching Seagull


With my son for company as navigator (who needs sat nav when you have a boy armed with a smartphone and supersized data allowance) I headed off last Tuesday 10th August to explore the Fens and surrounds, hunting down the biggest collection of Banksy seen since New York, October 2013.


Banksy We're All In The Same Boat


The Norfolk Broads is an idyllic network of creeks and lakes which on the day we visited was looking stunning with boats gently sailing here, there and everywhere in glorious sunshine and perfect breezes. Nicholas Everitt Park sits at the inlet to Oulton Broad, a classic British daytrip destination full of playgrounds, bowling, tennis and ice cream vendors. It does its best to turn away from the sour, grubby creek that runs down its spine but Banksy hasn’t. “We’re all in the same boat” has three children in a distressed Swallows and Amazons tableau, a skipper and second in command upfront scan the horizon while, at the back a third child bails their leaking tub. The two children upfront have paper admiral’s hats suiting their privilege, the child dealing with the emergency in the bilges wears a worker’s beaney. Originally there was a decaying boat hull but that corrugated sheet of iron was hauled away as it was constricting the water course.


Banksy We're All In The Same Boat


“We’re all in it together” our leaders promised, that was until Boris decided to throw out all the pandemic restrictions and impose on us a doctrine of “personal responsibility” despite a 3rd wave delta variant surge. Banksy’s smartly dressed captain navigates blind to signs of imminent disaster while someone else, representing the NHS perhaps, heroically struggles to stop the ship sinking. Coming the week after Boris decided that he didn't have to isolate despite an office staffer who flew on a plane with him testing positive, Banksy mocks our political leaders’ inclination to shamelessly pick and choose which of the rules they can ignore.


Banksy We're All In The Same Boat


In one of Lowestoft’s shopping drags, one of those that can’t decide if it is pedestrianised or not, a chubby child in a sunhat plays in the sand with a crowbar rather than a spade, the beach is the sand under paving slabs which the scowling but resourceful child has prized up. The scene embodies the famous slogan from the French student riots of ’68 “Sous les paves, la plage!”, “Under the paving stones, the beach!”


Child delighted to find Banksy girl playing in sand


This piece places the council in a quandary we will watch with amusement… Banksy is a great tourist draw for an economy “building back” but holes in pavements are a nailed on dead cert public liability nightmare! In appearance though not meaning, this piece recalls Banksy’s 2010 Tesco sandcastle at British seaside town Hastings.


Banksy Tesco Sandcastles, Hastings 2010


Lowestoft has more, the largest of the bunch brilliantly reproduces that seaside promenade classic – the chip stealing seagull. This is the best realised of the current collection. The simulation of a bag of chips using cut up loft insulation and a rusty skip placed in situ without permission is next level, a real classic Banksy.


Banksy Chip Snatching Seagull


We had the pleasure of chatting with a local who saw the work in progress. He recalls shrouded scaffolding, a van and a bored looking young man keeping watch. With nearly 2 decades experience of looking bored around street art, my boy could empathise with Banksy’s lookout. Our local observer explained the building was owned by an absent owner in London who let it to council-guaranteed temporary residents and that it had been subject of complaints in the past few years about the accumulation of crap in the front hard-standing. So locals were not in the least bit surprised at what looked like contractors carrying out maintenance though they were puzzled that the work required insulation.


Banksy Chip Snatching Seagull


The size of the painting and the installation of the rusty skip give this enterprise a degree of planning that few apart from Banksy have the skill to pull off without permission. It will be interesting to see what happens to that skip when the chips have been stolen, as they inevitably will be.

Outside Lowestoft we found a chilled rat reclining on a beach chair, sheltered under a parasol while enjoying a cocktail whose mix includes the drip from an adjacent outfall pipe. The rat is staring directly at the pipe in anticipation of the next top up.


Banksy Cocktail Rat Lowestoft 2021


It’s nice to see a Banksy rat again, in this case the black colour is predominantly freehand painted over a stencilled white layer which is unusual but Banksy has used the technique in the past, despite what a particular high profile Banksy street art acquirer/remover said. See for example the Basquiat tribute piece at the Barbican centre in 2017, though that is one that the art chiseller failed to acquire.


Banksy Cocktail Rat Lowestoft 2021


“Au revoir Lowestoft, it was lovely visiting you” and “Hello” to Gorleston Beach with its newly decorated beach shelter now sporting an arcade grab machine claw. By the time of our visit, this piece had been opportunistically added to by local artist Raphiel Astoria, who signs their art Emo. Among the additions are a number of stencilled bears, a statement proclaiming this to be a collaboration between Banksy and Emo and most provocatively, a stencilled Banksy tag.


Banksy arcade machine claw. Teddy bears and text added by local artist


The photo released on Banksy’s website shows the arcade claw before any additional artwork so the suggestion of collaborative intent on Banksy’s part can be dismissed. Robbo and Danny Minnick have made far superior interactions with Banksy street art in the past.

The additional bears look like the kind of bait prizes that never drop into the hopper of the arcade game. According to local news sources, experts apparently think the enhancements mean the Banksy piece “Makes more sense now”. What Emo has done dramatically changes our point of view, our relationship with the artwork. Stencilling the bears on the wall means we are now looking from the outside at a selection of prizes, which of course includes any poseur sitting on the bench, inside an arcade game. What Banksy painted actually gamified the whole world. We were all, the whole world, inside the game and the claw was selecting “winners”, the allegorical touch was a nod to life as a game that confers privilege on a select few while the rest of us flounder unwanted. From that perspective this was until the additions probably the most conceptually accomplished Banksy of the whole East Anglia collection. It still makes a great Instagram photo opportunity though.


Dave in front of Banksy


Merrivale Model Village is a self-effacing Great Yarmouth beach front gem completely drowned out by the garish competition. Even the slush puppy concession outside is a bigger eye magnet. Inside is a different story - it’s big, it’s delightful and it’s brilliantly British in a classic wholesome way.


Merrivale Model Village


A clandestine Banksy addition to the model collection is a defaced stable in classic gingerbread vernacular style placed in a quaint village in front of a medieval castle. The vandalism inflicted on this fairytale scene is a Banksy fire extinguisher tag and a Banksy rat who has written “Go big or go home”, a very witty slogan to put up on the side of a miniature house. The rat defacing the property has been caught literally red-handed, like the “If Graffiti changed anything” rat in London in 2011.


Banksy Graffiti house Merrivale Model Village



Banksy graffiti stable Merrivale Model Village


The Banksy tag is a model scale version of the fire extinguisher tagging hugely approved of by hard-core graffiti writers, reproducing the fire extinguisher effect at model scale is very impressive. Banksy has previous with fire extinguisher graffiti have sprayed the word “BORING” on the side of the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank in 2004. For purists concerned that Banksy doesn’t sign his street art these days, the Banksy tag here is not an artist signing their artwork, the tag IS the art which is a completely different thing.


Banksy graffiti stable Merrivale Model Village


Things get a bit complex at this point, the model is only on display between 1pm and 3pm. We had a lovely conversation with the son of the owner who told us that since word got out people were stepping onto the model village to get close up photos, so for the time the Banksy model could only be displayed for limited supervised hours. On Tuesday we did not know that! However the owner kindly showed us behind the scenes and let us view the stable close up, so what you see here is the empty space where Banksy left the model and a close up of the model photographed in another location.


Merrivale Model Village Banksy location


UPDATE – it appears that the owners under advice have actually completely withdrawn the model from display.

UPDATE 2 – it seems that they may now display the model under perspex (plexiglass). Perhaps it is best to contact them before travelling!

Frank Newsome (Jr), son of the owner, told us was that it took them several days to spot the intrusion, an alert guest asked them if the Banksy defaced model was genuine and it took them a while to figure out what the guest meant. Their minds went back to an incident a few days earlier where a female guest had been particularly fascinated in the model making process and ended up backstage on a personal tour while simultaneously a drone intruded into the airspace surrounding the model village so they scrambled their air defences and knocked the drone out of the sky with a net. Management believes these activities were a deliberate distraction for the staff to facilitate the surreptitious placement of the new construction. Banksy’s Instagram account includes drone footage of the model village installation so the story truly deserves to become part of the Banksy legend and the model village folklore.

Banksy’s additions are an amusing comment on the ubiquitous intrusion of the modern form of graffiti into this idyllic setting, nowhere is safe. This is a companion to the Banksy humour seen in modified oil paintings such as “Tox Cottage”.


"Tox cottage", Banksy - photo banksy.co.uk


Close by the model village a stencilled dancing duo on top of a bus shelter trip the light fantastic accompanied by an accordion player. All the characters look like familiar Banksy cast but the most impressive aspect of this somewhat routine Banksy is its placement, it is a clever interaction with the street furniture and you have to admire Banksy for executing this on top of a council bus stop without being caught.


Banksy Bus Stop Dancers Great Yarmouth


Two aspects of the Banksy artwork that has appeared in Cromer that might deter those of a less completist nature are that it is a bugger to find and the schlepp from the others to this one piece is an hour through the flattest English landscape imaginable. Don’t be put off though as this is certainly the most detailed and colourful of the set. A hermit crab with three empty shells is refusing access to three naked and needy hermit crabs, a social commentary piece touching on privilege, property ladder manipulation and social exclusion.


Banksy Luxury Rentals Only, Cromer 2021



Banksy Luxury Rentals Only, Cromer 2021


The arrangement and the placard device contain stylistic similarities with the 2014 “Migrants Not Welcome” piece in Clacton-on-Sea in Essex.


Banksy "Migrants Not Welcome" - photo www.Banksy.co.uk


So all told this is a very impressive and above all enjoyable collection of street art. The blending of political cynicism with humour is pure Banksy and above all, the execution bears Banksy hallmarks particularly the use of the scaffolding reported for the chip snatching seagull. The distraction strategy reported for the Merrivale Model Village installation may be new but it feels consistent with the degree of planning that characterises Banksy’s illegal street art.


Seagull attacks badly parked Mini Cooper


Interestingly two of the pieces in particular involved vandalism and dumping on public land, each of which could result in council jobsworths waving invoices for repairs to the pavement and removal of an abandoned skip in Lowestoft.

Banksy’s big reveal on instagram included two pieces which no one knew existed, they had not been spotted. The first one is a small one colour stencil image of kids by a paddling pool in peril from an inflatable dinghy. Banksy Spraycation Dinghy close up - photo Banksy.co.uk


By chance I happened to photograph the pool where that stencil was placed right next to the bench with the seated couple at the edge of the paddling pool. It had already been buffed by my visit on Tuesday and it seems probable it had gone the weekend before.


Great Yarmouth Paddling Pool - Banksy buffed


The council has stated that its contractors removed that one quickly because of an unfortunate resonance with the tragic death nearby of a young child a few years ago, they stated they thought that the stencil may have been an unfortunate coincidence rather than tastelessly intentional.
The other undiscovered new Banksy was in Kings Lynn.


Statue with ice cream cone and tongue in Kings Lynn - Photo Banksy.co.uk


At time of writing there were 8 remaining and it is possible to fit in all 8  East Anglia Banksys in a day, it’s exhausting but hugely enjoyable. It was a real pleasure that the pieces were not totally mobbed by crowds as is always the case for a new Banksy in London and also, other than the unfortunate augmentation of the arcade grab piece and the loss of the boat hull on another it was great to find them in pristine condition.

Links: Banksy instagram "The Great Bristish Spraycation"

Banksy Website

Merrivale Model Village Website

All photos: Dave Stuart except where stated

UPDATE: Check my comprehensive location guide for the new East Anglia Banksy street art: https://bit.ly/3AHLvXk

Banksy's Wilde Time in Reading Prison

A street art stencil has appeared on the wall of the former Reading nick and after making us wait a little while, Banksy has just this afternoon confirmed it as his, the tease.  

 As usual the confirmation comes simultaneously via his website and his Instagram and for the second time in less than a year it is in the form of a video showing in gripping detail an unidentified person spraying a stencil. A well sorted stencilling strategy is so important to a successful outcome and the video contains many fascinating details about the order of operations for this particular artwork.

   

screengrab from "The Joy Of Painting With Bob Ross...and Banksy", Copyright Banksy 

The artwork depicts old fashioned “over the wall” flit by a prisoner and the presence of the typewriter suggests the escapee is a writer. All the coverage has inferred the art is related to Oscar Wilde’s incarceration in Reading and that seems reasonable. Lots of references to Oscar Wilde’s last published work “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” abound though many contend that the piece was written while Wilde was in Reading while literary historians say it was written post release. 

Plenty of local coverage draws attention to a campaign to turn the now closed prison into an arts centre so there could be a political aspect with Banksy possibly offering support, though this would be the exact opposite of his intervention in 2010 which condemned the use of his street art as the centrepiece of a new “art-hotel”. 

Three elements really raise this seemingly modest artwork quite high in the Banksy cannon. Its placement is stunning, it is by the give way lines at a major roundabout in inner Reading so the chances of the artist being spotted were very high and indeed there are reports and photographs of work in progress last Sunday.

  Anonymous photographer, Reading and Berkshire News 

Secondly, it has context. There is the physical context which is why you need to see the prison in the backdrop, not for nothing does Banksy’s video includes a rising birdseye view over the wall. If you don’t see the prison buildings well, it’s just a high wall isn’t it. The historical context too is important, this being where Oscar Wilde did time and so the prisoner has the old school (non graff) writer’s tools of the trade, the typewriter. The weirdly downward pointing CCTV almost directly over the spot supplements the giggles nicely. 

Most importantly, while politically it is relatively mute although some are contorting themselves to see it as Banksy support for a Reading art centre, it is a brilliant cartoon. It ranks alongside the Simple Intelligence Test In Dumb Animals cartoon from Banksy’s 2001 book “Banging Your Head Against A Brick Wall"

"Simple Intelligence Test In Dumb Animals", reproduced from Banging Your Head Against A Brick Wall, copyright Banksy 2001 

There is a key aspect which the media hive seems to have collectively missed. The prisoner has been almost universally described as escaping from the prison using knotted blankets, even this afternoon in its umpteenth repost on the piece the BBC is STILL adhering to the idea they are bedsheets yet that is clearly not the case (Juxtapoz weirdly sees the typewriter as attached to the prisoner's leg).

Someone has given the wily prisoner a typewriter and under the guise of a major lengthy literary masterpiece, the prisoner has surreptitiously typed an escape rope on continuous paper.  This is about outsmarting your captors, just like the monkey in the intelligence test. Or, as Banksy himself put it in his punchline to that cartoon “A lot of people never use their initiative, because no-one told them to”.

 

Awesome.

   

 Photos: Dave Stuart except where stated otherwise

Banksy v Robbo - New Details Emerge

 

One of the biggest feuds in art-world history, street artist Banksy v graffiti writer Robbo rumbled on much longer than fans and art historians previously thought. 

In December 2009 street artist Banksy created 4 illegal pieces of stencil art on the sides of a canal in Camden, London. One of the pieces, the Banksy Wallpaperer revived an ancient feud between the street artist Banksy and the then retired but still famous London graffiti writer known as Robbo. By re-imagining a very old relic of Robbo graffiti dating from 1985 into a stencilled worker applying that graffiti as wallpaper, Banksy appeared to be suggesting that graffiti piece was perhaps just forgettable mass produced background rubbish.

   

Banksy v Robbo, Camden, Dec 2009 

Robbo and Banksy then engaged in a 12 months tit-for-tat exchange of insults by re-working those four art pieces in Camden, starting with Robbo turning the wallpaper into “King Robbo” on Christmas Day 2010, as first reported here on Graffoto.

 

Banksy v Robbo, 25th December 2009, photo Dave Stuart

Many articles record that Banksy insulted Robbo at a party in the late 90s, Robbo assaulted Banksy and Banksy had nurtured the grudge ever since until his attack on the Robbo relic at the turn of the decade. In a virtual presentation last week on Banksy’s London street art I played a re-discovered and never before reported snippet of an exclusive interview I made with Robbo in 2010 in which he says that Banksy had been attacking his graffiti years before the Camden 2009 takeover. 

In the interview, asked if he had been attacking Banksy art before 2009 Robbo laughingly replies

“………. before the King Robbo? No, he’s dogged me before that has happened, I can show you a picture, it’s in one of his books.“

   

Banksy Smiley Copper amended, photo Dave Stuart 

The picture Robbo refers to is the Smiley Copper in Wall and Piece. Robbo then confirms that the feud started in the Dragon Bar in Shoreditch in the 90s before going on to say 

 “And after that happened, there was a full name throw-up of mine, “Robbo” and he decided to put the grim reaper or the smiley face over the top of it and at the time, I thought if that’s the best he can do ... “

Examination of the Smiley Copper indeed shows the capital R of a piece of graffiti Robbo says was his has been squarely hit by the Smiley Copper which unusually has a huge Banksy tag across the centre of the artwork, leaving the intended recipient of the message in now doubt as to who has gone over him. In the world of graffiti if you intend to insult someone there is no point in making a timid little mark over someone else's graff, you go big and bold.

  Banksy Smiley Copper amended, photo Dave Stuart 

The Smiley Copper is believe to date from 2003 which indicates Banksy was picking the scab on that wound long before 2009 as previously thought. 

Sadly Robbo had a terrible accident in 2011 which left him in a coma until his passing in 2014, rest in peace King Robbo

Robbo tribute/vigil piece by Banksy, 2011 

The virtual online presentation “Banksy – The London Chronicle” is to be repeated this coming weekend at times that will hopefully be more convenient for Banksy fans in Latin America and North America and those in Asia, the Far East and Australia. 

Book HERE for 10pm GMT on Saturday 9th January 2021

Book HERE for 12 noon GMT on Sunday 10th January 2021, 

For up to date information on the Banksy virtual tour, see HERE

All photos: Dave Stuart 

Dave Stuart will appear as an Expert Judge on TV art show Next Big Thing coming on London Live in the Spring, details to follow.

A Decade On - King Robbo

Christmas Day 10 years ago the notorious Robbo vs Banksy spat went to another level. Robbo, RIP, headed out very early Christmas morning, crossed the Regents Canal at Camden directly under British Transport Police HQ and painted the perfect riposte to Banksy’s Wallpaperer.


25th December 2019 KING ROBBO!


Early that Christmas morning I noticed a photograph on Flickr of Robbo’s new iteration of this piece posted by Robbo’s WRH crew mate Doze. The genius was immediately apparent from that photo. I whizzed straight down to the canal, took some photos and wrote “Banksy vs Robbo WRH, WD – Checkmate” which was up online before Christmas lunch was served. It remains to this day the most read post on Graffoto.

Before Robbo’s Christmas morning adventure, the art on the wall consisted of a workman by Banksy wallpapering over some graffiti, which was actually an ancient Robbo piece.


Banksy Wallpaperer, 19th December 2019


For context, Banksy vs Robbo was an intense feud with ancient origins but for roughly a 6 month period it raged spectacularly at several locations along Regents Canal in Camden as each artist attacked the other's art with a succession of insults.

“It’s tongue in cheek, it’s all a laugh, it’s a giggle” Robbo told Graffoto about 10 months later when we met for a beery one on one unpublished interview in his local near Kings Cross.  Robbo also said in reference to the art Banksy was producing at the time "A couple of things I like, the graffiti wallpaper, that was a good piece, so was the global warming, that was a good piece. I appreciate art, I’m an artist. I’m a graffiti artist that’s my main flag but I am an artist".


Robbo exhibition opening night, Pure Evil Gallery, Sep 2010



Robbo exhibition, Pure Evil Gallery, Sep 2010


Robbo mentioned how he didn’t have much to do with social media so his mate put up the photo on Flickr, then early afternoon called Robbo to tell him the piece had already been picked up by a blog. Robbo said some kind and appreciative things about the Graffoto coverage so on the 10th anniversary of that event it is a pleasure to remember that exciting piece of art.

The word "Checkmate" in the title of that Christmas Day blog post was a bit presumptuous, Banksy didn't let things lie there and neither did Robbo.  Follow the full sequence of evens in the spat below:

Update - check Robbo's flick, in particular go down to Keen-one's comments, here.

Old news: Banksy hits Camden

Robbo Trumped Banksy: Banksy vs Robbo WRH, WD - checkmate

Banksy vs Robbo...Did You Think It Was Over?

And The Beef Goes On

Banksy v Robbo: War Continues

Banksy Reparations

2014, sadly..  Robbo RIP

Robbo RIP, Tribute by Adnate (Aus) in Shoreditch. Sep 2014

All photos: Dave Stuart

2010s A Decade Of Murals

Muralism is the painting of astounding pieces of street art on buildings, these days usually with permission. We're talking daylight painting, accomplished artists and permission but not direct municipal involvement. In Shoreditch that’s generally how it operates. We are not talking about civic murals where artists pitch for council approval, arts council funding and perpetual legacy.

Although this is not intended to be about any kind of order or preference of ranking, let’s begin at the end, or perhaps the top, the one single mural in Shoreditch compared to which all others are fussy little miniatures, the Connectivity Mural painted in 2018 and partly repainted in 2019. This took muralism in Shoreditch to a level of complexity, coherence and (unimportantly) a size which we had not previously seen.


Busk and Oliver Switch, flanked to left by Ninth Seal, Nomad Clan and (just visible) Lovepusher and Mr Cenz; Ed Hicks and Dr Zadok to right, 2018



Mr Thoms, Hunto, Captain Kris, Tizer, 2018



Connectivity Matters - 2019 Pride update by Autone and Neist


Curiously, the very end of the decade saw an unexpected change to Shoreditch’s oldest mural as EINE updated SCARY in support of the mental health charity Movember


EINE, Really Scary October 2007 - 2019



Movember Scary, December 2019


At the start of the 2010s street art muralism was in its infancy. Typically artists were on their own if they wanted to sort out a permissioned wall or if they were lucky there might be a gallerist sorting out a few spots to paint in conjunction with a major exhibition.


Mode 2, Wenlock Rd Laundry, 2010



Gaia, Hackney Road, 2011 (who says murals have to be painted?)



Phlegm, 2011


Mural walls with frequent updating were few and far between and were typically in the management of well organised, knowledgeable, skilled but otherwise busy spraycan artists.


EINE, 2010


Muralism changed dramatically when Lee Bofkin, a man with a vision, set up Global Street Art and delivered a different model for mural organisation.


Spore, Macism, 2013 – support by Global Street Art



Cyrcle, Cept, Run, Faith47, Mysterious Al, Rone


Soon muralism was on steroids, exactly the way you all love it now.   These days photo journals from certain street art and gallery websites pantingly announce “the world's best murals this month” and it is clear that what appeals most to them and by inference you, is SCALE. Things ain’t worth shit unless two hoists, a photographer and a drone were involved. We don’t have so much of that in Shoreditch thankfully.


ROA permission mural work in progress; buffed non permissioned EINE above, Tizer below; 2014



D*Face 2011


Jim Vision has been a key organiser of festivals, group shows and murals in Shoreditch but as also an awesome spraycan artist his own right produced a stream of belters throughout the decade.


Jim Vision, Hanbury St, 2017


Jim has organised Meeting Of Styles in London since 2008 and in consequence the Nomadic Community Gardens housed a series of spectacular signature murals.


Twesh Vibes Odisy Gent 48 Ders Sokem Meeting Of Styles 2014



Meeting Of Styles 2015 feat Zadok, Wisher, Tyme, Kak, Jim Vision, Ekto, Anone, ADNO



Meeting Of Styles 2017 feat Zadok, Xenx, Jim Vision, Balstroem, Neist & Twesh



Meeting Of Styles 2018 feat Voyder, Samer, kaes, Jim Vision, Jeba, Irony, Fanakapan, Core & Aches



Graffestival 2019 feat Jim Vision, Trafik, Balstroem, Cazer, Planet Rick, 2Rise, Vile, Lifer, Tizer


Graffoto is allowed to pick favourites so it’s a pleasure to include this 2018 Xenz mural which was just beautiful. The young man in the photo potentially has a great career as an art curator.


Xenz, MOS 2018


Many home based artists made the transition from graffiti to non permissioned street art and then on to legal murals. At the start of the decade our favourite local muralists were the guys and girls making up the Burning Candy and The Rolling People crews.


“Love Will tear us Apart” CEPT TRP, 2014



D*Face got a double points score with Guilty Pleasures as both a mural AND rooftop!


“Guilty Pleasures”, D*Face, 2013


Murals don’t have to be huge. This stunning confection by meme Martinez was painstakingly painted and looked incredibly photogenic, something which Graffoto is always biased towards


Meme Martinez, Argentina, 2018


Shok 1 consistently produced virtuoso spray painted Xray imagery and successions of interesting thematic projects including the spectacular Rainbow XRay series.


Shok 1, Seven Stars Yard, August 2013


A real challenge in assembling a selection of favourite murals and finishing before the following decade ends is the painful process of deciding what to leave out. The same applies to Mr Cenz’s oeuvre, over the decade Mr Cenz has produced a solid stream of stunning futurist inspired portraits.


Mr Cenz, Fashion St 2018


In 2012 Sheffield’s Jo Peel managed to find a rain free 3 week period in April to paint and repaint a mural which was photographed to make the amazing “Things Change” award winning animation . Planning, execution and grinding hard work was required for this majestic achievement, a mural who fulfilment really unfolded in the virtual space with the street art element being a step in the process.


Jo Peel - Things Change (end piece)

Things Change animation - Jo Peel



Portuguese artist Vhils drilled and chiselled this amazing portrait out of the plaster on a wall on Hewitt Street on a vanished building which for a while provided a home for the End Of The Line crew. This portrait was significantly different in the way pretty much that no one really works quite like Vhils.


Vhils, Rockwell Studios, 2013


Behind the Vhils in that photo you can see a mural depicting intertwined stiletto wearing legs by the immensely talented INSA. INSA developed his giffiti™ concept using an augmented reality phone app. The “Cycle Of Futility” was a standard waypoint for street art tours for a number of years until the wall was taken over by spraypainted adverts. You can simulate the effect INSA achieved on the street by downloading the free "Insa giffiti Viewer" app and displaying this next “work in progress” shot on a screen or another phone and viewing it through the app, available here.


INSA, Cycle Of Futility, 2014 – 2018


London artist Stik’s “Big Mother” mural in Chiswick was the largest mural in the UK, the one time I cycled over to look at it a rear derailleur malfunction (shit happens) meant I didn’t get there and never actually got to see it in person before the block of flats was torn down! Brick Lane Couple dating from 2010 made it onto a list of the UK’s favourite art of all time in 17th place and from 2016 the famous “Shoreditch Past, Present, Future” has ruled the Old Street landscape though appreciating it requires understanding the different aspects of Shoreditch that each of the three characters is contemplating. Context is critical.


Stik, 2016


Event driven and campaigning murals were common occurrences. The terrible tragedy/crime at Grenfell tower led to many murals, including this two storey blockbuster whose scale is not actually that obvious from the photo:


"Dedicated to all those who lost their lives 14 June 2017" by NHS and CBM

Australian artist Jimmy C has made a huge contribution to London walls over the span of the decade, perhaps the one with the largest impact internationally was this amazing portrait of Usain Bolt which surveyed Sclater St market during London Olympics in 2012. Also features a stunning trackside image by Dank Kitchener.


Jimmy C "Usain Bolt"; Dan Kitchener (below) 2012


That sorely missed spot also hosted a mural which was one of the highlights of Borondo’s sojourn in London in the decade’s middle years. Borondo was one of the most talented painters we saw in London over the decade and we were very luck to enjoy his work over quite a prolonged explosion of creativity.


Borondo, hackney Wick 2013



Borondo, Shoreditch 2014 – also featuring Miss Van and Dede


In 2012 Shephard Fairey visited and for the first time put up some stunning painted murals as opposed to the huge paste ups which had previously been his calling card.



Shepard Fairey – It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back


Even master of miniature sculpture Jonesy got a little mural action going


Jonesy Missing Link, Seven Stars, 2014


Neoh and Sweet Toof get a big nod simply for being awesome painters in completely different ways and being smashing people


Sweet Toof, 2012



Neoh, 2017


It may not be possible to shoehorn a Banksy entry into each of the Review of The Decade posts so in the context of murals we can’t overlook the genius of Shop Till You Drop. Proximity to one of London’s most chichi shopping locations Bond Street lend this mural great context and it also is great to see a Banksy that survives without being under plastic.


Shop Till You Drop, Banksy, 2011


Contemplating the impact of street art murals inevitably weighs in the balance some great aspects and some which are perhaps a bit unfortunate but this is a celebration of some the stunning murals we have enjoyed over the past decade so we're not going to get into “muralism good or bad thing?” here, that’s what academics are for.

This series of "That was the decade that was" blog posts started with a look at the state of the game as it was back in 2010. Not sure what's going to come next nor when all wthat is asked is that you just love, sign up, and follow.



Inkfetish, Poer, Jasik, Nemo, Corp, Stik



Panik ATG, 2010

All photos: Dave Stuart