Without a doubt, street art fans can find the best talent Europe has to offer in the UK. With the tallest piece of street art found in Leeds and the most political located in Aberdeen. Britain does have talent if you know where to look. Let’s start in London and go across the country, tagging the best work as we go. We are starting in Bristol.
Bristol the Home of Banksy
When we think about street art, Banksy is a household name. Born in Bristol, Banksy spent most of the 90’s annoying Bristol city council by producing prolific amounts of work and tagging the city to make a statement. Emerging paint can in hand from an intense underground scene in the 90s Banksy’s distinctive stencilled graffiti art style is political and usually offers a social and political commentary on topical events.
There are 16 installations scattered around Bristol, including ‘The Girl With The Stick’ painted on his primary school wall after a school building was named after him. The most valuable school building in the entire country, we suspect.
Visit in July for the Upfest Urban Paint Festival; the festival has taken place online during the pandemic. Still, there are high hopes that Bristol will welcome the 50,000 visitors seen in previous years. Upfest is Europe’s largest free street art festival.
Shoreditch, London
There’s a lot to see and do in London, including many art galleries and museums. It’s true, you may be able to see a Rembrandt or a Picasso adorn these gallery walls, but would you be able to see a Stik? Stik is a globally acclaimed British street artist based in London, called Stik because he paints stick figures. In Shoreditch, Princelet Street is home to his famous and iconic stick charters that adorn some metal security shutters on shop fronts in the area.
East London and Hackney is home to many street artists; beauty and graffiti go hand in hand with the new hipster lifestyle. Street art changes regularly, as is the nature of street art; nothing apart from Banksy and Stik’s works remains in place for any length of time; this means the artwork is current and always relevant.
Image Credit: Bruno Mameli
Brighton
Brighton is a hotbed of talent and artists. Street art features highly on the list of attractions; Church Street, Kensington Street and the Laines offer rich picking to look for an alternative scene.
The famous Banksy stencil of two police officers kissing is on the exterior of a pub, The Prince Albert, in Trafalgar Street. The original has been sold, and the artwork is a glass-covered replica protected from vandals as the site is still a place of pilgrimage for fans of the elusive artists.
That’s not all; The Prince Albert is also the home to other murals, including the unknown artist interpretation of famous musicians. There isn’t a space on the front, side or back of this pub with any original unpainted brickwork.
If you’re a Star Wars fan, visit Dirty Harry’s in North Laine and see an out of this world mural, the AT-AT walkers that literally look like they’re coming for you. The shop next door, the Graphic Novel Shop, also holds its own with its interpretation of famous characters – think Tank Girl meets Swamp Thing, and you get the idea.
Brighton has more than 10 locations to visit and experience street art; just like Shoreditch, the art changes with the community’s mood.
Newcastle
Street art is everywhere, and Newcastle is no exception. Paintings, murals, and stencilled art feature heavily in the North East of the UK, with Tyneside the centre of the street art and contemporary art scene. Ouseburn Valley around the Ship Inn is a prime example of street art in the raw.
Some artwork is recognised, but Newcastle’s changing face means you have to be quick, or they will go the way of gentrification and get removed for sale or just painted over. To see contemporary art in one place, visit Unit 44, an art space and creative agency that specialises in contemporary and street art; in this rapidly changing city, there is at least one place where time stands still.
Image Credit: Street Art News
Aberdeen
If we asked where Scotland has the best street art, we’re sure you would say Glasgow or even Edinburgh, but you would be wrong. It’s from Aberdeen. Home to fine architecture, oil rigs and seafood lovers, Aberdeen holds the famous Nuart Festival every year. Last year, due to the pandemic, the festival went online, but that hasn’t stopped the street artists from getting inventive.
Visitors can see all the artwork within easy walking distance from one another, more mosaic than spray paint art. The ‘Suffragette Spirit’ is a piece by Carrie Reichardt and is part of a more comprehensive campaign celebrating women by Amnesty Scotland. Find this piece on the side of the Adelphi theatre.
Around the corner at The Green in the heart of Aberdeen, you can see some fantastic pieces. You can’t miss the dominant mural by two German artists who collectively go by the name of Herakut. The work was applauded at the Nuart festival in 2017 and remains in pride of place today.
Leeds
Athena Rising is the theme of the most significant piece of celebrated street art in the UK. Situated on the side of a modern office block, it’s a massive 153ft high. Leeds was the capital of the UK’s industrial heartland and a city that is now home to some of the most innovative tech start-ups in Britain, so the artwork fits a city with such history and culture.
Street art is a celebrated art form in the UK and worldwide, but that’s not all – going on the trail of street artists means you can truly immerse yourself in a city’s culture and vibe and get a rounded flavour of the UK.
