Long Dark Tunnel – 10Foot, Tox and Fume take over central London (again)
Long Dark Tunnel show, with 10Foot, Tox and Fume. Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus, London
Long Dark tunnel, a show with serial graffiti vandals 10Foot, Tox and Fume, runs from 21st March to 13th April 2025. Location is basically opposite Eros in Piccadilly Circus – 33 Regent Street, St James’s SW1Y 4ND.
To be fair, it’s not like you have to go to central London to find art by any of these three. My daily journey to work has at least two of them included but this show is great, certainly the best graffiti show I’ve seen in London for a long, long time. It’s ambitious too, with a location in Piccadilly that could hardly be more central and a three week run. And the pedigree of the transport system botherers could hardly be higher either with leading graffiti taggers from three generations of writers in the form of Fume, Tox and 10Foot creating the exhibition.
Anyone thinking this is just a room with tags sprayed about needs to visit to see it for themselves. An incredible amount of ‘borrowing’, sweat and spray paint has gone into this show with so many little (and large) details to be seen, all with a cohesive theme.
Walking in off the street, you are presented with a reproduction of a tube station lobby, complete with TFL notice boards, escalators, locked off doorways and advertising. Except nothing is quite as it seems. The tiling is spray painted, the adverts cover encrypted messaging apps and spray paint and there are prints and originals on display from the three protagonists.
Heading up on the escalator you arrive on the first floor and the main exhibition space. There’s a replica of the side of a London Underground carriage along with many other real items from the network – lighting, CCTV, cabling, fencing – it’s all here. Each artist has his own section for their particular style of off street work – from road signs, to moquette patterns, to detailed paintings with lots of cameos. There’s also a special place reserved for the memory of Robbo (RIP), with personal items, photos and a clear love of Arsenal Football Club.
Around the room there are loads more details to discover, you can even look into the long dark tunnel itself before you travel back downstairs and head out opposite the famous statue of Eros. Nipping down to the depths of the real Piccadilly Circus station and heading along to the Northbound end of the Bakerloo platform you might want to finish off your trip with a but of graffiti watching as the Bakerloo trains roll in and out – this line is currently battered to the point where it’s now actually rare to see a train without graffiti on it.
Anyway 10/10, great show – feels like the start of a new era.
