The Alternative Side Of London – Shoreditch Street Art Tour
For over a year now me and my friend have been meaning to go on the Shoreditch Street Art tour especially after it appearing on my London bucket list, and finally a few weeks’ ago we managed to get a day and book in. I took the Friday off work thinking London would be so much quieter than at a weekend and it really didn’t make much of a difference but it was nice to have a long weekend. Meeting at the goat statue outside Spitalfields Market by Liverpool Street Station a troop of about 20 or so of us eagerly awaited our tour guide for the afternoon, Dave.
I didn’t really know what to expect from the tour other than the obvious street art that we’d see. Advertised at 3.5 hours it seemed a little long but the time absolutely flew by once we started out. Moving around the streets and alleyways in Shoreditch we had an absolute blast with Dave pointing out different artists and styles, and explaining the history behind them. I didn’t realize quite how much street art changed until Dave pointed out how recently some of the pieces had been painted and how some of them had changed even in the past few days since he was last there.
During one of our explorations just off Brick Lane, we even saw a street artist in action painting a large addition to a wall. The tour itself was fascinating as we found out how far some people travel just to paint or paste onto the walls of Shoreditch including loads from Portland in America and some as far as Melbourne, Australia. I also had no idea the real difference between graffiti and street art, I assumed that street art was when you had permission to paint there, but this actually isn’t the case as some still don’t. Simply put graffiti tends to just be tags and wording whereas street art is pretty much everything else from pastings, posters, spray paintings and whatever else you can add to a wall.
The tour itself was fascinating and I’m finding myself looking aat paintings and stickers more as real artwork now than I ever would have, by the end of the tour we could even recognize particular artists work due to what we’d previously seen. Dave as a guide was fantastic and you could really tell how passionate he is about street art even following up with an extensive email of links to reviews and images of things we spoke about.
If you’re looking for something more on the unusual side to do in London and don’t mind walking then this is something you really need to do. You don’t even need to be massively into art to appreciate it.
What unusual things would you recommend in London?
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20 responses to “The Alternative Side Of London – Shoreditch Street Art Tour”
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All About Me
Rhian Westbury
Travels and Destinations
Nothing currently planned
Those pictures look great. I love stumbling across street art.
the one thing, i lovvvvvve about visiting different places is the graffiti xo
How interesting! I never knew there was so much street art in Shoreditch x
Well you know I love my street art, my blog is full of it. So glad that you had a good time on the tour, I love how the art always changes x
I adore street art, I think Instagram shows off the street art in Shoreditch SO well!
There are some incredibly talented people out there! I can’t believe someone would want a picture of Donald Trump in their area though! 😉
Oh wow that does look amazing I must go take a look sometime and see it in person.
I love the street art of Shoreditch and can genuinely lose hours just looking at it x
Wow, it has been ages since I went to Shoreditch. I should make the effort!1
I have never heard of this before, it sounds really interesting. We don’t have anything like this in Newcastle I don’t think xx
What an interesting way to spend a few hours! I hadn’t been to Shoreditch until recently and was taken aback by the stunning street art, so many talented artists 🙂
I did this tour a few years ago and it was an awesome experience. I recommend people to go on this tour. xx
I did a little exploring this area a while ago, but never take loads of time for it. I always rush in and out of London.
Oh wow, I remember you mentioning this on Instagram. I’m glad I’ve caught your post now. Sounds great. I’d love to do something like this. Some street art is so cool!
i absolutely love visiting this part of london. always something new whenever i look
What an interesting looking tour. Would love to experience this.
I love street art there is some fantastic street art in Paris too. I can’t believe how much that part of London has changed!
This looks right up our street (no pun intended) at 3.5 hrs it does seem rather long but glad it went fast. A great way to see the city. We might book it in on our next weekend trip to London x
We go to Brick Lane a lot but I never knew this was so close! My favourite piece here is the girl in the heart shaped glasses. It makes me wonder if she is a real person. It really is beautiful x
The backstreets of Shoreditch are full of some cool graffiti and they are so many new ones appearing constantly 🙂