Graffiti in London.

I love graffiti. You can blame it on that Banksy chap. Before Banksy, or Sir Banksy as I call him, I despised the awful scrawlings of the mindless morons and their 'Man U 4 ever' or 'Tracy loves Trevor'. Then Sir Banksy came along with his eloquent take on modern life. I loved his irreverent poke at the pompous politicians who tell us how to live our lives. Anyway enough of that, lets get the show on the road.... 

This is a Banksy. It's been removed and is now only seen in exhibitions. This blog will not concentrate on Banksy because even I would find that a little bit boring. I will try to show only graffiti that I consider to be art or interesting or both with a bit of luck. 

I love this piece. It's clever and a little bit creepy. I have no idea who did it but s/he's a genius. Are the hands pulling in the bricks to hide behind or is he trapped, who cares? I like it.


This photo shows a body leaning on a fireplace. It's street art rather than graffiti but it fits my understanding of graffiti. I think it's wonderful. It's clever and different.

 It was taken in an alley near Brick Lane.


Now not all graffiti is sophisticated but it can still say something. This is so simple anyone can do it. I like this because makes me smile.

This lovely piece was (or is, who knows with graffiti?) by akajimmyc. He's obviously a trained artist.

The face belows is by tboltoo. I really like these, they are some of my favourite pieces of graffiti. 

 Here's one of the best artistic pieces I've ever seen in London. The building it's on is now partly demolished. I have no idea who painted it.

 This is by cityzenkane. It's a Lord Jagannath, a Hindu god. You can see him making it on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe0y2UTIzzw

Now this next piece of street art is by Xylo. He's one of those thoughtful intelligent artists who try to make us think just a little bit more about our environment. It's an iphone that represents how some of us are controlled by technology. I am an out and proud iphone bore and I can fully relate to this lovely little piece of art.

This little chap I found sitting patiently in Brick Lane (as indeed was the Xylo piece). I have no idea who plonked him there but I do love it. In fact it's inspired me to do the same thing. So when I get around to buying some das I'll make a little masterpiece just like this.

Below is an example of very bad graffiti. It's bad because it's painted over a Victorian wall advert which was painted by a craftsman and enjoyed for decades by all and sundry until this pillock thought he could improve on it. End of rant.

This is by Mike Marcus. He specialises in paste ups. He nearly always does the human form and is often quite controversial. This photo was taken in Camden.

This stunning piece is by Boxi, he's a Berlin based artist who created this in Scruton Street. He's now my favourite artist, apart from Sir Banksy of course. 

This was taken in Leake Street, which is a tunnel at the back of Waterloo station. It is now used exclusively by street artists. It's an unofficial place to do graffiti and the authorities turn a blind eye to it. There is a lot of tagging done here, which I don't like. I think it's self indulgent and just a little bit boring. The art below is pretty and bold but that's all. 

This blue lady is by C215, whose real name is Christian Guemy. A Frenchman, but we'll forgive him for that because he really is a very accomplished artist.

The bird below is by Roa. He's a Belgian artist who paints quite a lot of stuff in London. It's always animals, ofter slumbering. They are always painted in a style that reminds me of Victorian line drawings. In pursuit of my art I often have to climb in through broken fences etc to get my photo. This was the case for this image, so I hope you appreciate it.

The man below is by Jef Aerosol. Again a Frenchman, he was born in 1957 and has been doing street art since 1982. 

Here's another Banksy one. It's no longer there, or at least you can't see it anymore. I stumbled across this after leaving a conference and thankfully I had a camera with me. Which is no surprise really.

This is by t.wat. It was taken just off Brick Lane, within  a couple of weeks it was painted over. Which shows how quick you have to be to capture these art forms. It shows Her Majesty driving a Fiat car with a machine gun. There were a whole row of these little cars.

That's all folks!

I have over 1000 graffiti photo's on my flickr page. I also have over 100 photo's of Banksy's work in situ. And I have over 60's photo's from the Cans Festival held in 2008.