London Street Art

From the tiniest random sticker to six storey high murals London is one of world’s most vibrant cities for street art. Below are links to some of the best known and prolific street artists who have put up work in London since 2000 to the present day – whether they be local, national or international. And underneath these are ideas where in London you should go if you want to see the best of London Street Art and other helpful advice.

	ALO Alo's (Aristide Loria) detailed portraits appear in doorways and gaps all over the East End of London.
	AROFISH Arofish's political street art can be seen both in London and in many other war zones
	BANKSY Britains most famous career vandal - street work and shows
	BEN EINE Fine quality fonts writ large all over London and the rest of the World
	DALEAST On his website DALeast simply describes himself as a human being, his art separates him out though - instantly recognisable and always a welcome visitor to London
	DAN KITCHENER Dan Kitchener is truly a multi discipline artist - as comfortable speed drawing his illustrations on an ipad as much as he is working with multi storey walls
	DAVID SPEED David Speed's bright pink neon street art set against a black background is now a common sight throughout the East End
	DOTMASTERS Dotmasters aka SeeSix aka C6 started out on all this in the 90's and was involved right at the start of London's nascent street art scene
	Dr D Billboards, paste ups, stencils, launderettes and general subversion
	DFACE Swapping a deskjob for a Pentel N50 Dface is now a internationally recognised multimedia artist
	EL CHIVO One of the second wave of original stencil artists
	FAILE Since Faile (pronounced as Fail) are a duo from Brooklyn, dating back to 1999 and have visited London several times over the years employing many different styles along the way
	FANAKAPAN Fanakapan is the London based pioneer of hyper realistic balloon graffiti
	INSECT Paul Insect aka PINS aka Paul Insect is a multi discipline contemporary artist working in a variety of scales, mediums and locations
	INVADER The iconic Space Invader pixels deployed as tiles in a worldwide city invasion
	JDK JDK's paste ups are a relatively new addition to the London street art vista but their intricate pen work already single them out as unique
	JR French photographer and artist whose scale, vision and ambition sets him apart
	LORA ZOMBIE Lora Zombie is a self taught Russian painter as adept with social media as she is with a paint brush resulting in her having a significant and growing fan base
	LUDO Parisian born Ludo studied art in Milan and has over the years made several trips to London where his large "Natures Revenge' paste ups always catch the eye
	THE LONDON POLICE English duo initially made their mark in Amsterdam but went global with their perfectly executed circular / curvy figures in 2002.
	MANTIS Mantis first picked up a spray can in 1995 in his native South Africa, produced some of the most iconic stencil images in London and moved forwards to highly detailed spray paint pieces
	MCLN MCLN's recurring plague doctor inspired image has recently started appearing all over the London's East End in various guises.
	MOBSTR Purveyor of fine quality thought provoking slogans
	MR CENZ Mr Cenz has been painting on walls since 1988 and is now a professional artist in demand all over the world with a slew of pieces all over his hometown of London
	MY DOG SIGHS My Dog Sighs's style is characterised by the combination of melancholic and often naive portraiture with the use of found materials
	NORIAKI Polish artist with a little figure that gets everywhere
	PABLO DELGADO Mini paste ups and painted shadows
	PHLEGM After a life started in creating comics Phlegm's fantastical features can be seen in a much larger scale all over the World.
	PURE EVIL AKA Charles Uzzell Edwards his work is haunted by a rabbit he regrets shooting as a child
	ROA Roa is from Ghent and travels the world painting animals local to the place he is in
	SAVANT Savant works anonymously on the streets of London with a stencil style developed out of repetition first in sketch books and later transferring into pasted up work
	SHEPARD FAIREY He emerged with his iconic Andre The Giant stickers and evolved into a poster designer for a President
	SHOK-1 a true pioneer, case in point being his trademark style of aerosol x-ray art
	STEN AND OLI Sten and Oli's colourful but sad figures on the streets of London
	STIK Two dots, four lines seems so simple and yet Stik's work has lots of depth
	TOASTERS Since 1999 Toasters have appeared everywhere, from simple renditions to the abstract and deconstructed
	WRDSMTH Los Angeles based street artist placing inspiring phrases indelibly on the streets

The latest London Street Art

In some areas of London the streets undergo a continuous and rapid change of the art in their area. While some pieces in prominent locations can last years, even decades art in other areas can change on a near daily basis. For the latest street art that has caught my eye see all the latest posts on the Art Of The State blog tagged with London Street Art.

London Street Art Tours

Whilst I’d always recommend having a walk around some of the areas mentioned on this page in your own time there’s a lot to be said for going on a guided London Street Art tour. These are especially useful if you only have a few hours to spare or are new to the world of street art and won’t recognise the artists you encounter. Done well they can be a fantastic introduction, full of amazing art, information on the artists along with stories behind the works. Done badly they can be hopelessly misleading – it’s well worth checking out the reviews and seeing how long they have been operating.

There are many different street art tours operating in London, mainly in the Shoreditch / Brick Lane area. The best I’ve personally been on is Shoreditch Street Art Tours run by Dave Stuart which weaves a story from the smallest sticker to the largest mural helping you to connect together everything you see. I’m happy to recommend this tour and rest assured that I get no kick back whatsoever for doing so, it’s just a really great tour in my experience.

Where to see London Street Art

Brick Lane / Shoreditch

The area that runs up from Brick Lane In Whitechapel up to Shoreditch and and on to Hoxton is the place with the highest concentration of Street Art in London.

Leake Street Tunnel

The Leake Street tunnel was the site of Banksy’s Cans Festival back in 2008 and since then it’s half mile long walls have played host to countless artists with the graffiti art changing on a daily basis.

Other hot spots for London Street Art

Other notable areas for street art in London include Brixton, Hackney Wick, Dalston, Camden, Dulwich, Walthamstow, South Bank and Bethnal Green.