Sunday 31 May 2015

Street art in Brick Lane

The other night science fiction author, Roger Levy and his wife, Tina, invited us on a tour of the East End led by the beautifully-named Bliss from Undiscovered London. We walked around the Brick Lane area and learned about its incredible history: from the Huguenots' arrival in the 17th century, to the Jews in the 19th and the Bangladeshi community more recently. The East London mosque has been a place of worship for all three. But the best part of the tour was the street art. Banksy's London work started in Brick Lane and there is something to see and wow at on every corner, side street and parking lot. I had heard about the tradition in Buenos Airies, but hadn't realised that Argentine artists are at the forefront of wall paintings here in London. A superb example is Blu's 'Muto' animated street art. And look at this powerful image of the 'clown' which recently 'arrived' and which Bliss thinks the police may remove soon – so go check it out now and see if you can guess why they might want it gone. This morning I read on FB that Martin Smith's book on street art is out soon. Of course, we ended the tour with  a curry, and yes there is some street art in 'Left Field'.

Photo: Anne Aylor

No comments:

Post a Comment