I’m spending the next two weeks in London and I’m interested in checking out some of Banksy’s graffiti sites. My understanding is that the graffiti gets painted over/destroyed fairly frequently so I don’t want to waste time following an out-of-date tour. My searching has brought up lists that are at least a year old. Is there a current list on line somewhere? Thanks!
This page was updated 2 days ago and suggests there’s only two that are still in their original condition and a few others that are damaged but still visible. There is a book you can buy that has pictures of them all and their locations but I think it may be out of date now.
Thanks mutantmoose, that’s exactly what I wanted. It sucks they get painted over so quickly.
The councils just see it as vandalism and paint over it. Which raises an interesting question - should it be seen as vandalism (since it’s painted without permission in a public place) or should it be seen as art, to be preserved?
I can kinda see both sides. You don’t wanna give everyone carte blanche to paint on the walls but at the same time would you paint over a Da Vinci just because he painted it in an inconvenient place?
Some of them are really impressive like the one that’s still there “No Ball Games”. Think they covered that one with perspex to protect it.
http://www.artofthestate.co.uk/Banksy/Banksy-london-september-2009.htm