London's Graffiti Story: Crews, Trains and Tunnels

What did London graffiti look like before hip hop?

Before the 1980s, London graffiti was mainly words. In the mid-1960s, "Clapton is God" appeared on a wall in Islington and spread across the city. In 1975 a long campaign painted "George Davis is innocent" across east London after his conviction for armed robbery. Political messages, protest slogans and jokes appeared on walls and railway bridges, often visible from trains.

How did hip hop graffiti start in London?

In the early 1980s, young Londoners inspired by hip hop, electro and the films Wild Style and Style Wars began to paint in the New York style. Covent Garden, then a meeting place for breakdancers and the new hip hop scene, was a centre of activity.

The Chrome Angelz crew, made up of Bando, Mode 2, Pride, Zaki and Scribla, became one of the most influential crews in Europe. Mode 2 became famous for his characters, and the crew connected with writers in Paris and Amsterdam. Walls at Westbourne Park in west London became an early hall of fame, where crews painted large pieces in the mid to late 1980s.

What about the trains?

As in New York, London writers soon targeted trains. King Robbo painted his first train in 1985 and, with his crew WRH, painted across the London Underground network. Painting trains was dangerous and illegal, and London Underground and the British Transport Police responded with cleaning programmes, security and prosecutions. Some writers were jailed.

In 1985, aged 15, Robbo also painted a piece on a wall beside the Regent's Canal in Camden, reachable only from the water. It survived for 24 years, until Banksy painted over it in 2009. See Banksy vs King Robbo.

How did London's street art scene grow?

From the late 1990s, stencils, posters and stickers spread across east London. Banksy painted many of his early London works there. Ben Eine, who co-founded the print company Pictures on Walls with Banksy, painted large letters on shop shutters, and in May 2010 painted the whole alphabet on Middlesex Street, which locals nicknamed Alphabet Street. In July 2010 the prime minister, David Cameron, gave President Obama Eine's painting Twenty First Century City as an official gift.

Stik, known for simple, expressive stick figures, began painting while homeless in Hackney and has said art took him out of homelessness.

What is Leake Street?

Leake Street is a road tunnel about 300 metres long under the platforms of Waterloo station. Over the bank holiday weekend of 3 to 5 May 2008, Banksy staged the Cans Festival there, inviting stencil artists from around the world to transform it. Since then it has remained one of London's few legal graffiti spaces, constantly repainted, with bars and venues along it. See legal graffiti walls in the UK.

Where can you see graffiti and street art in London today?

• Shoreditch and Brick Lane: the densest area of street art, with changing murals on Hanbury Street, Fashion Street and the side streets.
• Leake Street, Waterloo: a legal tunnel you can walk through, often with artists at work.
• Camden and the Regent's Canal: graffiti along the towpath and around the markets.
• Hackney Wick: warehouses and canal walls painted by many artists.
• Banksy's London works: a few survive in public, though many have been removed, painted over or protected behind perspex. See Banksy.

Guided street art tours run regularly in Shoreditch and are a good way to find work you would otherwise miss.

Where to go next

Read about Bristol, London's great rival, or the wider history of graffiti in the UK.