Street Art in London: A Self-Guided Walk Through Shoreditch and Beyond

London has more accessible street art than almost any other city in Europe. It's not hidden — you just have to walk through the right areas with your eyes open rather than at your phone.

Here's where to go and what to look for.

Shoreditch: The Core

Start at Old Street roundabout.

Walk south on City Road, then turn east into Curtain Road. By the time you reach Great Eastern Street you'll already be passing murals. This is the densest concentration of street art in London — it changes constantly, which is half the point.

Pedley Street and the rail arches between Shoreditch High Street and Bethnal Green Road: this is where you find the large-scale commissioned work. Artists like Zabou, Thierry Noir, and D*Face have pieces in this area. Some have been there for years. Others will have been painted over by the time you read this.

Rivington Street and Club Row are worth walking in full. The smaller pieces — tags, paste-ups, stencils on junction boxes and shutters — are often more interesting than the big walls. Look for Stik's minimal stick figures: small, quiet, surprisingly moving.

Boxpark on Bethnal Green Road is a shopping container mall and not interesting in itself, but the arches and walls around it collect good work. Don't go in. Walk around.

Brick Lane

Walk north from Shoreditch High Street into Brick Lane.

The entire length of Brick Lane has art on its shutters. Sunday morning, when the market happens, is when it's busiest — but the shutters are most visible midweek when the street is quieter and the light is better.

Turn into Hanbury Street at the northern end. The walls behind Truman Brewery and along Fashion Street have some of the most consistently interesting work in the area. Phlegm, Ben Eine's lettering pieces, work commissioned through the brewery's arts programme.

Alo Yard and Pedley Street are where the legal walls are. You'll sometimes see artists actually working here. Don't interrupt. Do watch.

Leake Street Graffiti Tunnel, Waterloo

This is different from everything else on this list.

Leake Street is a tunnel under Waterloo station that Banksy opened to graffiti writers in 2008 for his Cans Festival. It's been a legal graffiti tunnel ever since. The walls change constantly — sometimes daily. What was there yesterday is gone. What's there now won't be there next week.

It runs about 300 metres. Walk the full length. Look at what's fresh (still bright, no overspray) and what's been there a while (faded, starting to disappear under new layers). The archaeology of graffiti culture is visible in the walls if you're paying attention.

Take Lower Marsh from Waterloo station. Walk under the railway bridge. You can't miss it.

Hackney Wick

East London, near the Olympic Park.

This is the area that's changed most in the past decade. When the Olympic development happened, artists and studios moved into the industrial buildings around the Lee River and the canal. The street art followed.

Vittoria Wharf and the streets around Wallis Road and Chapman Road have dense coverage. Much of it is large-scale. Unlike Shoreditch, it's less curated — more organic, more directly connected to the studios and live-work spaces that back onto the streets.

Get there from Hackney Wick Overground. Walk the canal path south toward the Olympic Park and then loop back through the streets. Give it an hour.

It's also worth knowing: Hackney Wick has a real arts community — studios, small galleries, open days. It's not just wall art. Check what events are happening there at any given time.

Dalston and the Ridley Road Area

Smaller concentration but worth seeing if you're in East London.

Around Gillett Square and along the railway arches off Dalston Lane, there's a cluster of pieces that tend toward the political. Less curated, more reactive. Changes with what's happening in the world.

Practical Notes

Walk, don't tour. The tour buses and guided groups move too fast. What makes street art interesting is the accumulation — the relationship between pieces, the layers, what's been respected and what's been tagged over.

Early morning on a weekday is the best time for Shoreditch. Light is good. Streets are empty. You can actually look at things.

Photography: shoot from the street. Don't climb fences or trespass into private yards to get a shot. Some of the better work is visible from public space if you stand in the right spot.

For events connected to street art, graffiti culture, and the creative communities in these areas — open studios, exhibitions, workshops — Incontro is where a lot of it gets listed without being buried in algorithm.

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London's street art is genuinely world-class. Most of it is free, all of it is outside, and none of it requires a ticket.

Find arts and culture events in London → incontro.app