If you have visited London and walked on the streets of Brixton, Croydon, you’d see lots of street art designs painted on the walls of underground bridges, shop walls and shutters. Designs vary from beautiful portraits, memorials or graffiti with some message on it. London has the world’s biggest collection of street art and people come from all over the world to admire these art paintings.

The history of street art in London

There was a period when the works of the most famous artists of all time, such as Pablo Picasso, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and others, were most admired. Since then, times have changed, and today pop art and graffiti (which was once deemed vandalism) has captured the public’s attention. Street art in London traces back to the late 1970s when hip-hop and electronic music cultures took the limelight. In addition to street art, artists started to give themselves a non-real tag name and started tagging them in their art across London. Later in the 90s, Shoreditch started to become popular for all the newbie street artists. This time period saw the rise of the world’s most popular graffiti artist Banksy– a secret street artist whose fame can be seen in many places in south London. Banksy street art theme focused on society inequality and corruption coupled with humour.

The best of London street art

Here’s the list of places in London where you can get to see the best of street art –

Shoreditch

Found in East London, Shoreditch is one of the best areas in London for street art. The best thing about the art here is “Everything’s changing! What’s there today will not be there tomorrow.”Fondly known as the “Mecca of street art” in London, Shoreditch is known to have hosted street artists from around the world. Shoreditch also features some of the best graffiti by Stik (@stikstudio). You’ll also find the art by Banksy on Rivington Street.

Croydon

Croydon is famous for the murals that you can spot in the centre of the town. Over 100+ murals have been created since the Croydon Mural Project started in 2015. You’ll find the murals on the hoardings, walls, and shop shutters. One of the most famous mural is the Winston Churchill mural which was painted in 2016. The mural is made from the extracts of Winston Churchill’s personal journal.

Brick Lane

Brick Lane is the cultural centre in London and a world-famous street art location. You’ll get to see truly incredible graffiti paintings on the walls. Brick Lane is well known to host the annual summer event every year where street artists from all over the world join together. You should not miss seeing Banksy’s street art here.

Camden

Camden Street became famous from the nearby Camden Market. Camden features the artwork of Bambi – one of the famous female street art painters. Her works are more on the female identity, social and political injustice. She became famous through her work ‘Amy Jade’ in 2011, a tribute to the late singer Amy Winehouse in the Camden area.

If you get a chance to visit London, make sure you visit these places to get a view of these street arts. You can also get on board the Street art London tours to enjoy the street art and graffiti.

Author: Nick Jonson is the Managing Manager of Print In London, a London based Printing Service specialising in Same day Printing London. When he isn’t working on campaigns for clients, he loves binge-watching Netflix shows and walking his dog.