Street art is not just something for people who love to go to museums and look at paintings there. Neither is is jut pointless vandalism done by some kids. It is actually a real form of art and London offers plenty of places to show and see it in all its different forms. Mostly the messages behind the pictures are incredible why it can be worth going on a guided tour. There are even some really good ones for free, for example by Strawberry Tours©.
When trying to find some street art on your own, you won`t have to search very long in London, especially in the central areas. Still there are some places where you can see the most beautiful artworks:
Mainly there are two regions in London to explore paying high attention when looking for street art: In the east and in the west. Let`s start with the western part.
Here you will mostly find the tours going, often starting from Tower Bridge. Around the Bangladeshi quarter in all the little streets there are real hidden gems. Huge profiles of women that fought for human rights or political messages subtly hidden in a spray painting on the walls. You can marvel at several different techniques around here, like for example the drip and drop, where the artist works with thousands of little drop shaped coloured spots to create a picture. Very famous around here is also the Brick Lane market where locals still buy their clothes and and items need for daily life. You might want to combine the search for your favourite piece of street art with a stroll over the market. When you are looking for a place to have lunch around here, simply choose one of the many typical restaurants. According to my experience they offer all really good value for money and the dishes taste amazing everywhere.
Additionally, you can find huge murals filling the entire front of a house from the ground right up to its top, for example the one you can see in the photo showing a scene of Romeo and Juliet around Shoreditch. The neighbourhoods around the Old Spitalfields Market, which definitely is worth a visit as well, hide plenty of big artworks that give entire buildings a totally different character.
Walking right up north until Hackney, you will find some spray paintings on your way as long as you keep looking. Most people seem a bit disappointed about the small number of pieces to find, but
this is only because most simply don`t wander off the main street and take a look around the next corner.
Let`s come to the man most of you were probably waiting for: Banksy. Obviously also his works can be found all over London. The most popular place to find them, however, is Notting Hill with its
Portobello Road Market. A lot of shops offer prints of his works but you can also see a few real ones on the walls while strolling through the streets if you watch carefully. Surely there are
plenty more artists around here using the neighbourhoods atmosphere and creating memorable artworks on some of the left over free spaces on the walls around here. Dare to go away from the main
streets and also take a look into some smaller ones on your left and right to discover the most of it.