Street art is everywhere. But which bits of London have the best work?
It's a tough call. Often, some of the most striking street art appears as a one-off in an unlikely part of town. Witness the multi-storey chihuahua by Irony and Boe in Poplar, or Dan Kitchener's even bigger mural on a hotel in Bloomsbury (which is otherwise a street-art desert). Conclusion: you need to keep your eyes open because street art can turn up anywhere, any time — part of its allure.
That said, certain areas are more richly blessed than others. Some bits of London are replete with big, professionally commissioned murals, while others still have an edgier not-exactly-legal ecosystem. Many support both. If you want to spend an afternoon wandering around admiring street art, then the following areas are the best options (in no particular order).
Shoreditch and Spitalfields
Long considered the epicentre of London street art, these adjacent areas on the City fringes have lost their edge a tad in recent years. The money moved in, the artists were priced out, and now much of the street art is commercial in nature.
That's the conventional narrative, and there's some truth to it. But the area still has a ton of impromptu street art of every variety. The key areas remain Brick Lane and Hanbury Street in Spitalfields, and the Rivington Street and Redchurch Street areas in Shoreditch. The quieter alleys and yards off Brick Lane are particularly good for politically charged paste-ups. David Speed's pink portraits (example above) are common throughout the area. Just to scrape the surface...
There's no denying, though, that many of the larger pieces in this area are professionally arranged, often with the help of local startup Global Street Art. The best known brick canvas is the Village Underground venue off Great Eastern Street, whose back wall has been painted over on countless occasions (we were already running retrospectives back in 2011). Sometimes it's pure art, sometimes an advertisement, sometimes a political message, but always Instagrammable.
The recently built Art'Otel, meanwhile, has preserved a couple of Banksy works, made years ago on the now-demolished Foundry building.
Soho
Central London, with its sky high land values, comes with much more security and surveillance. It's not a happy hunting ground for off-the-cuff street art. That said, Soho in particular still attracts surreptitious paste-ups and stickering. Paul "Don" Smith's portraits of celebrities often brighten a doorway. And you might find the occasional stencil from the likes of Loretto, Invader and Pegasus, or commissioned artwork like this beautiful example from Mr Cenz (above). Nathan Bowen is also omnipresent, wherever you find a builders' hoarding.
Camden Town
The tatterdemalion, weed-hazed days of Camden Market are long gone, but the area still has plenty of bohemian pockets here and there. The side-roads to the east of the high street, near Camden Town station are usually well painted, as are the alleys on the stretch towards Mornington Crescent. Follow the canal round towards Regent's Park and you're likely to see a stencil or two across the water. Meanwhile, Mr Doodle recently painted up the whole bridge joining Chalk Farm to Primrose Hill.
Hackney Wick
The whole borough of Hackney (which includes Shoreditch) has long had a strong street-art scene. The roads around Hackney Road, Hackney Central, parts of Dalston and Broadway Market are good places to look. But it's Hackney Wick where you'll find the most action.
Until the Olympics, this was an enclave of artists and creatives, feeding on a tempting stock of semi-abandoned industrial sheds and warehouses. Seemingly every building featured a stencil or two, with any leftover space covered in stickers, wheat-pastes and random tags. That's no longer the case. The Wick has been gradually gentrifying with expensive apartments replacing the old lock-ups and units. There's still enough 'canvas', though to ensure some good set-piece murals alongside smaller creations.
Walthamstow
In recent years, the most ambitious street art has been migrating from the inner city to the suburbs (see also Penge and East Dulwich, for example). Walthamstow is now one of the undisputed hubs of large-scale street art, thanks in large part to the Wood Street Walls project. It's helped to arrange dozens of murals across the area, all with community buy-in. The massive E17 Arts Trail festival does much to celebrate the scene, along with other local art.
Brixton
Brixton is home to one of London's most famous and photographed works of art: the pointillist portrait of David Bowie by Jimmy C. It's symbolic of Brixton's wider street art, which typically honours local and cultural legends. Chadwick Boseman, for example, was commemorated with a mural in 2020 following his death. Nearby, you'll find a giant mural of Marvin Gaye, which also recalls the Brixton riots of 1981. Other works depict local community worker Michael Johns (above) and sports coach Jimmy Rogers. You'll find countless other examples — some officially sanctioned, others ad hoc — in the small roads and passages in and around Brixton Market.
Notting Hill
W11 blends widespread gentrification with careworn corners, just the right environment to stimulate a street art scene. You'll find examples all along the axis of Portobello Road and its side streets, but the greatest density is to be found in the shadow of the Westway towards the northern end.
Whitecross Street
A popular realm of street food between Barbican and Old Street, Whitecross Street is also well noted for its murals. Every July, the road puts on a two-day festival of community and street art. Don't worry if you're on holiday and can't catch it, because much of the work hangs around until the following year.
East Dulwich
Well-to-do East Dulwich was not a part of town in which you might have expected to encounter much street art. That was before the arrival of the Dulwich Outdoor Gallery in 2012. This project encouraged leading street artists to paint the local walls, drawing inspiration from canvases in Dulwich Picture Gallery. Set up by the late Ingrid Beazley and ubiquitous street artist Stik, the initiative saw dozens of artworks appear across the wider Dulwich and Peckham area (see map). Some have now vanished, but plenty remain in good condition. You can even sign up for occasional tours of the highlights.
Peckham
Some of the Dulwich Outdoor Gallery spills over into Peckham, but the area has a thriving street art scene of its own. Numerous pieces to be found across the area from the likes of Phlegm, RUN, ROA, and this exceptional bit of portraiture from Mr Cenz. The area around the Bussey Building is particularly attractive to street artists.
Waterloo
Most of the Waterloo area is like the rest of central London, with street art here and there, but few hubs. The one, exuberant exception is the famous Leake Street tunnel underneath the rail tracks. For over a decade, this has been a permissive graffiti space. Anyone can come along and spray the walls (and even the cavernous roof). The turnover is such that you never see the same tunnel twice. You'll find one entrance on Lower Marsh, the other next to the huge Brewdog beneath Waterloo. Wonder if the canine fella' above is recovering from a pint.
Croydon
Of all the regions of London, Croydon feels most like a town with its own unique identity. It has a street art scene to match, in which local painters mix with big names from outside. Among its many gems are several iconic images, including the lonely figure of Princess Diana gazing from a balcony on an old water tower, painted by local artist Rich Simmons. Another cover star is Boy Soldier, by Tristan Schoonraad.
Penge
If you're not familiar with the south London suburb, then you'd never guess it was a thriving hotbed of wall painting. But Penge has more murals per acre than just about anywhere else in town. Some very good ones, too. Much of it sprang out of the London Calling Blog's Free Art for Penge initiative, which arranges for spare walls to be painted with attractive designs by local and international artists. If you get nothing else from this article, then make a note to pop to Penge and tour its creative bounty.
What about Banksy?
The scene moved on, more than a decade ago, from Banksy fetishisation, but it's impossible to deny the influence the mysterious street artist had on the scene, and its public perception. Banksy remains the one street artist that almost everybody can name. If you're interested in tracking down his surviving work, we've created a map and guide elsewhere.
