Results tagged “Shoreditch”

Yesteray, I visited Butchies in Shoreditch for a light lunch while I was taking a walk and happend to pass by it. Butchies is known for its fried buttermilk chicken, and it started trading in 2013 in east London. I ordered two chicken tenders and halloumi fries, which was served with chili honey. I was very impressed as the chicken was very juicy and tender and not at all dry, and the chili honey dip was delicious with the chicken and with the halloumi fries. The restaurant is in a small building off of Rivington Street (at the Old Street end of the road) and tries to recreate the street food vibes.

I recommend this restaurant and really enjoyed everything that I ordered. I must try a chicken sandwich next time too.

Street artist WRDSMITH is known for creating lyrical paste-ups that feature a painted stencil of a vintage typewriter along with a paste-up of text on a page that can be lyrical, silly, or an observation. The artist lives in California but was born in Ohio, and he is also a writer for television. I first noticed his work in early 2016, and he's visited a few times and leaves behind various stencils on walls. 

Previous posts about Wrdsmith on this blog can be seen here:

Street Art: WORDSMITH & C3
Recent Wrdsmith (Wordsmith) Street Art

At the end of 2021, Penge saw street artists Ben Eine and Nerone collaborate on a wall on High Street in Penge. Street artist Ben Eine is one of London's high-profile street artists, and his work is known globally. The artist currently resides in the U.S., but he does re-visit England in order to paint new work and touch up original walls. Nerone has been painting more recently; I discovered some of the artist's walls in 2015 or 2016. The artist is from France and uses a "party" vibe with bright flowers. The two artists collaborated on the new wall in Penge with Eine creating the typography for the word "Unity" and Nerone creating the floral background. The work has been painted directly onto brick.

In addition to the Penge piece, I recently discovered a new "Last Days" sign mural by Eine in Shoreditch. These have been popping up in places across east London where developers have acquired to build on. So, this spot's days are likely numbered with this fresh piece.

In addition to Eine's work, below are a few additional pieces that I spotted by Nerone over the past few years across east London.

Humbledough is a vegan cookie dough bakery based in Shoreditch Boxpark, and it offers a selection of cookies and cookie dough. All of the products are vegan and gluten free. In addition to their London branch, there are other branches in Manchester and Leeds. Humbledough sell ice cream and cookie dough sandwiches and sundaes, and I ordered the cookie dough with ice cream on my first visit and a cookie. This was filling and sweet, but the ice cream takes the edge off it.

On another visit, I ordered the cookie ice cream sandwich. Both were enjoyable. The cookie and ice cream flavours can be selected. Cookie Dough is located on the ground floor of Boxpark in Shoreditch.

A couple weeks ago, I joined the bloke and a few of his work colleagues after work to visit Platform in Shoreditch. Platform is a gaming experience venue that allows visitors to enjoy sessions of games with food and themed cocktails. They also have bottomless brunch and board games, arcades, and vintage games available to play. This is a great venue for socialising with work colleagues or team events.

As I had worked earlier in the day myself, I hadn't had any lunch or dinner by the time I got to Shoreditch, so I was famished. The pizza tasted delicious, and I had a couple of cocktails to wash it down with. We opted on playing Yoshi's Island, but we are spoiled for choice on multi-player games.

The cocktails are all named according to gaming themes with "Bloody Mario", "Goldstar Martini", "The Boss", "The Devil's Cartel", and others. I had "Rainbow Road", which was a layered colourful rainbow cocktail served with a slice of candy on top. The "Goldstar Martini" was also good, and I tried the "Ice Queen" and "Crystal Coconut" too. My favourites were "Crystal Coconut" and "Rainbow Road". Of course, there are beer and wine options for those who do not wish to have a fancy cocktail. 

Ninty minutes went quickly, and we had just finished the game on time. 

Only four people can play a game in a session, but not everyone wanted to play, so do bear in mind to possibly book additional areas for anyone who wishes to play if there's more than four. 

Overall, it was a fun evening and is a good after-work social event.

Originally from Chile but based in London for the past several years, Otto Schade has painted across London and the world with his work instantly-recognisable. His main styles are the style where his subjects appear to be made of ribbons or bands. The other style is the silhouette, and this often features political or social satire. One of the newest murals, painted at the end of 2020, was a portrait of Donna Summer on "Bull in a China Shop" wall opposite Box Park in Shoreditch.

Other work includes some new smiley-face ribbon artwork, which was located on a couple of walls.

The post office on Brick Lane was another location of Otto Schade's artwork. Ecuadorian actress Flor Maria is the subject of this piece, and her portrait in ribbon-style is located on the wall.

Other common subjects feature ribbon-style pin-up girls. The one below is wearing a cowboy hat and looking at her mobile phone: "Audrey's Mirror Selfie".

Unfortunately, many of the pieces are short-lived before they are tagged over in east London. It is always very disappointing when this happens, especially when it's not been there long. The rhino below was tagged over very quickly.

Another mural features a blend of ribbon and silhouette styles with an eye showing a sword fight scene.

"Open Your Mind" is a satire piece with a karate kick breaking the silhouette.

Another one of these shows a boy climbing a ladder to reach grenades hanging from a tree like fruit.

In Camden, the artist painted a tribute to Amy Winehouse along with another pin-up girl. Both use the ribbon style.

In early 2013, I first discovered Italian-born street artist ALO's first London murals near Brick Lane. The artist had become a firm favourite of mine since I saw these murals. Last year, a few new ALO murals appeared in east London, and this was followed up by some additional murals more recently. I never got around to uploading the photographs of these, so here they are. As far as I am aware, all of the murals are still available to see, though they probably do not look as fresh. I am not sure where I saw them all, but I will try to add the locations.

Kingsland Road became a prime spot for a couple of different murals by the artist last year, and the next two murals are located at the top of the road (not far from the canal).

I also discovered a couple of older murals that I don't think I had seen before.

A doorway on Brick Lane became a location for one of the murals.

This one below has been here on Brick Lane before.

Near Code Street, this colourful mural is hidden in a dirty corner of a doorway.

Another new mural, this one near the top of Shoreditch High Street at the corner of Hackney Road and Columbia Road, appeared last summer.

On the back of the wall of the same building, this is the largest mural that I have seen by ALO to date. Unfortunately, it backs onto some parking area, so I was unable to photograph it properly as there was a car parked right in front of it.

The below mural is near a pub on Shipton Street, a block away from Columbia Road.

And off Barnet Grove near Columbia Road is this very floral mural of a girl with flowery hair.

A similar style to others photographed, this mural features red with white polka dots and a blue background.

This one is off Brick Lane and features bright yellow, red, blue, and black colours.

I cannot remember where I captured the image below.

I also cannot remember where this wall is located, but I think it may be Broadway Market.

Newer murals that were painted this year by ALO contain women with printed shirts - Louisevi

A new area that was created in early 2021 is at the corner of Shoreditch High Street and Commercial Street and features several portraits of females with different styles. There are five in total, located at the ground of the building where it is boarded up, and I have included a close-up of each one. These are the newest murals to date that I have seen by ALO.

I'll try not to get too far behind in my street art photos next time.

Additional work by ALO featured on this blog:

New Street Art in London by ALO
ALO paints new street art near Brick Lane
ALO returns to London and paints abstract portraits (2015)
ALO: 2013
'ALO Part 2'
'ALO part 3'
'ALO Part 4'

Street artist Ben Eine is a high-profile street artist from London who now lives in the USA. When he returns to London, he often adds a new mural or refreshes one of his older murals. His work can be seen in various spots throughout London from the Olympic Park to Petticoat Lane and near Shoreditch High Street. Many steel shutters include letters painted by him. His most recent work in London was a refresh of his "Love" mural on Ebor Street. Both sides of this street contain the artist's work, and it has changed over the years. Last year, it was looking tagged over, so the refresh was needed. The new mural was created in collaboration with Dotmasters and reads "I don't like this anymore".

The mural's statement may be that the street artist is tired of the wall, perhaps, or it could be a statement following the "Love" statement that was painted by the artist on the same wall in 2019. Perhaps it is a statement about something else entirely or about London or Shoreditch in general or the pandemic time. I am not really sure.

Dotmasters collaborated with his smiley print in alternating red, orange, yellow, and white colours. These smiles are patterned behind the statement in bold and bright typography that Eine painted.

More street art by street artist Ben Eine on this blog can be seen below:

New Ben Eine Street art "Love" in 2019
Ben Eine "Peace is Possible" Street Art
Street Art: Ben Eine
Ben Eine Paints 'Like Nothing Else' on Ebor Street
Ben Eine Tribute to Grenfell Tower Victims
Ben Eine 'Last Days of Shoreditch'
Ben Eine New Street Art Summer 2016
Ben Eine 'Extortonists' Refresh

Street artist David Shillinglaw has recently painted a large-scale mural on Zetland House in Shoreditch. It has been awhile since the artist has painted a mural in London, and this one was painted on behalf of London Mural Fest, London's first mural festival that took place in the autumn. Shillinglaw is influenced by tribal, abstract, and pop art. 

More posts on this blog with David Shillinglaw's work is located here:

Street Art: David Shillinglaw
Street Art Round-Up to July 2015
Malarky Returns to Create Street Art on East London Shutters

I previously had lunch at the Far Rockaway Bar, which was located on Curtain Road in Shoreditch. I only visited the once with a work colleague back in 2014, and I enjoyed it and always wanted to visit again. Not long after that visit and I attempted to visit it again, but it was closed for refurbishment. It never seemed to open after that when I walked past it. It was an American-style diner and bar with USA-themed items and a collection of artwork and action figures, amongst sports items. I really liked it,a nd I loved that a lot of street artists painted inside. 

There was this huge collection of action figures, which was pretty awesome.

And skateboards lined one of the ceilings.

Street artists, such as HIN, painted some artwork for the walls.

Saki and B*tches also painted the walls in one of the rooms with her fantasy women.

I had a chicken burger with onion rings, and I enjoyed it. 

I wanted to visit again to enjoy more food (onion rings!) and cocktails, but I never got to. I had hoped to visit here for my work-leaving party back in early 2015, but it did not happen. It is unfortunate that it doesn't exist because there was a lot more street art there that I never got to photograph, and I only had an old camera with me, so the photographs did not come out well.

Graffiti Life is a group of street artists who help to keep east London's street art scene and walls active. The most recent artwork is neon pink themed and a few of the walls appear near Shoreditch High Street station, some of them up high and difficult to photograph. Below is a selection of the work and contains some of their work over the past couple of years.   

'Game of Thrones'

Street artist Dan Kitchener is one of my favourites; I always enjoy seeing his new art on London's walls. The latest piece was finished just a few days ago with a Tokyo street scene, titled "Tokyo Graffiti". The artist often paints bustling city scapes at dark with glowing street lights, and this new mural features that. Added into the mix this time is the presence of graffiti on the top of the artwork in Japanese and Latin-based characters. 

Upon closer inspection, all of the walking figures with umbrellas are wearing surgical masks, in what has become the reality recently. The wall is located in Shoreditch on Clifton Street.

At the beginning of this year, the artist painted on Pedley Street and Brick Lane. This street scene did not last long at all before it was painted over.

The last piece, located on Brick Lane, dates from mid-summer last year, and it was called "Hong Kong Puddles" and also did not last long. There were others as well, but they were all tagged over relatively quickly and before I could get a photograph of them. I do wish the taggers would leave them alone.

For more work by Dan Kitchener (DANK) featured in this blog, please read the following links:

Latest Street Art by Dan Kitchener
Dan Kitchener Paints 'Ghost Cities' on Pedley Street
Dank Paints 'Ghost Cities - Bristol' for Upfest 2018
Dan Kitchener Paints "Meeting of Styles"
'Future Tokyo and Tokyo Ghosts'
Dank "London Rush"
Dan Kitchener's Street Art on Sclater Street and More
Street Art: Dan Kitchener
"Downtown" Mural by Dan Kitchener
Goswell Road

Spanish-based street artist Sr. X is currently in the UK with some of his artwork exhibiting in the Delerium Art Exhibition in Dalston. The artist has painted several times in London previously and uses an illustration style with vintage characters and plays with showing their emotional states through art and also uses vintage advertising and graphic design styles. His most recent piece appeared over the weekend on scaffolding near "Bull in a China Shop" under the Shoreditch High Street bridge. It is titled "The Back of Your Mind."

The work shows a vintage-style illustration of a smiling man whose first layer of face has come off to reveal another man hidden inside. The man on the outside looks smiling, but the alter-ego inside has a somewhat sinister-looking expression hidden in the shadows of the mind. It's another wonderful piece from a street artist whose work I appreciate.

Other artwork by Sr. X (Senor X) on this blog can be seen in the below posts:

Camden Street Art Self-Guided Trail
Sr. X (Señor X) "The Rapture" Street Art on the Village Underground
Sr. X (Señor X) "The Itching" Street Art off Brick Lane
New Sr X Octopus on Hackney Road
Sr.X Paints Village Underground Wall
Sr.X "Buy Shit!" Sign on Village Underground
Sr X Collaborates with Zabou

One of London's newest street art walls after gentrification are the "Connectivity Matters" walls in Shoreditch. Last year, the walls were painted by different street artists from London and abroad, and the last section of the walls remained unpainted for some time. In late June, I noticed that the walls had finally been painted by street artist Autone1 and Neist. Autone1's work is very linerar with patterns and colour. His "PrideMatters" mural covers the back of the large building and the railings around to create a rainbow effect. 

It's a colourful artwork in this very concrete part of London. A close-up of the artist's technique is below.

Street Art on ConnectivityMatters Wall
Hunto and MisterThomas collaborated together on this ConnectivtyMatters wall
Mr. Cenz Paints "Connectivity Matters" Wall

Street artist Ben Eine is one of the most high-profile street artists in the world. He is from London but now lived in the USA, and he does come back to London to update his murals or add new ones. Famous work of his was located at the Olympic park in London, Ebor Street near Shoreditch High Street, and Middlesex Street where he painted the alphabet on shutters. Of course, there's quite a few other places where his artwork appears. His artwork features typography. The newest pieces appear on a refreshed wall on Ebor Street. The word "Love" is written three different times in three different type styles.

I also noticed a new letter near Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch. This isn't far from Pure Evil's artwork, and some of Pure Evil's creatues appear on the door next to the shutter. (For more information about Pure Evil, see this post: Pure Evil Street Art Murals on Bateman's Row).

Ben Eine "Peace is Possible" Street Art
Street Art: Ben Eine
Ben Eine Paints 'Like Nothing Else' on Ebor Street
Ben Eine Tribute to Grenfell Tower Victims
Ben Eine 'Last Days of Shoreditch'
Ben Eine New Street Art Summer 2016
Ben Eine 'Extortonists' Refresh

For over a decade, a street art rat by Banksy has remained covered to protect it from being painted over. The giant rat was in the centre of demolished buildings in a space known as "Red Gallery", which was a venue for many years for art, entertainment and street food but which had been renamed to "The Last Days of Shoreditch" in more recent years because of the regeneration of the area. The giant rat and a television (which I was not able to capture in the photograph below) was painted in 2004 and then covered in 2007. The only reason I was able to get a photograph of the rat uncovered is because the buildings have recently been knocked down here to make way for a new multi-storey hotel, which will surely make this part of London more soul-less.

Shoreditch loses more of its street art walls in this move, but at least I got to see the rat uncovered as I've known it existed behind the makeshift boarding. The rat was not uncovered for very long, and the last time I visited, the wall had been removed.

Another fact about the rat is that Banksy did not like this piece and hoped that it would be demolished. I am not sure if it has been demolished or if it has been sold, but I did not see the wall when I visited in early September 2019.

Berlin-based street artist Thierry Noir is credited as being one of the first street artists with his colourful faces appearing on the Berlin Wall in 1984. The Academy Of Art Summer Show at Protein Studios in east London recently hosted Thierry Noir's artwork, and east London has recently become an outdoor gallery with some new walls being painted with Noir's colourful faces and other walls being refreshed with his previous work. 

Protein Studios had a lot of his work for sale, and I visited it after opening night; on opening night, there was quite a crowd.

One of the buildings painted was near the old Boundary Estate at Browns; the back side of this wall contains a paste-up from a year or two ago.

Rivington Street had this piece on a door and also some on Pizza Pilgrims at the corner of the street.

I believe that these two murals were freshened up as they had been there for a few years now. Both of these are on Rivington Street.

Further along and near Hoxton is another face.

This wall was painted on Luke Street in Shoreditch.

This face made an appearance on Brick Lane.

This one appeared at the end of Redchurch Street, replacing an older mural. It's hard to photograph this one as there's road work plus someone always parks out the front of it.

Outside Protein Studios is this piece.

Here are some more shots from inside Protein Studios.

Just a couple blocks away, you will find this on Holywell Street.

And this on (I believe) Curtain Road.

And, going back to Rivington Street, this building was repainted with Thierry Noir's faces. It was nice to see new work on this building, and an older Noir piece is opposite it.

I beleive that these are all of the new new pieces painted by Thierry Noir on his visit, and he's got plans to come back to London in November, so we will be seeing more of his work then. Keep checking back for updates.

More street art by Thierry Noir on this blog is located in the following posts:

Thierry Noir Paints New Murals in London
Thierry Noir and Street Art at Shoreditch Food Village
Street Art in Soho by Paul 'Don' Smith, Broken Fingaz, Amara por Dios, Thierry Noir, and others
Thierry Noir's Shop Front on Shoreditch High Street
Thierry Noir's New Murals on Rivington Street
Thierry Noir, RUN, and John Dolan Murals at the Museum of London
Street Art: Thierry Noir

The huge wall of the Village Underground in Shoreditch has now had a new mural painted onto it. The new mural, painted by Spanish street artist Sr X (Senor X), was finished only a couple of weeks ago and features graphic illustrated vintage-style expressions with Chinese or Japanese text and imagery. The new mural is titled "The Rapture" and really grabs attention.

Previous work that I covered by Sr.X is located on the following links:

Sr. X (Señor X) "The Itching" Street Art off Brick Lane
New Sr X Octopus on Hackney Road
Sr.X Paints Village Underground Wall
Sr.X "Buy Shit!" Sign on Village Underground
Sr X Collaborates with Zabou

The new "Connectivity Matters" walls are one of Shoreditch's newest street art spots after many walls in the area have been developed on in recent years. Earlier this year, Hunto and MisterThoms painted the front of the wall (covered here: Hunto and MisterThomas Collaborate on Connectivity Matters Mural). Later in the spring, the wall was painted by several street artists, which I covered here: Street Art on ConnectivityMatters Wall. A large section of the wall still remained clear of street art, and I was waiting to see who was going to paint there. It turns out that the artist to paint the wall was Mr. Cenz, and the work was completed this summer.

Mr. Cenz has been painting London since the 1980s and uses a stylised grafitti style for his work. His subjects are usually female portraits painted in a futuristic and fantasy style and almost look part human and part cyborg. The new mural shows a woman holding a blue globe, which spells out the word "Future".

Additional work by Mr. Cenz can be found in the below links:

Loopcolors LooperFest Street Art "Power of Women" in Milan, Italy
Recent Street Art By Mr. Cenz in Winter 2018
Mr. Cenz Paints Tribute to Usain Bolt
Mr. Cenz Refreshes Fashion Street Mural
Mr. Cenz Paints Hanbury Street
New Street Art by Mr. Cenz
Street Art: Mr. Cenz (2015)
Autumn 2013 Street Art Round-up

A building just off Curtain Road near where William Shakespeare's Curtain Theatre used to stand appears to have been placed from Austria or Germany with its brightly-painted facade with flowers and text. The building commemorates the famous couple in love, Romeo and Juliet, whose romance was doomed due to familiy differences. It has become an iconic story of love and sacrifice. Shrouded in myth, this story was probably true or had truth to it and was probably passed by word-of-mouth in the region and then to other regions where Shakespeare learned of it and penned it. Two figures were found buried in embrace in the city Verona, where the story is set, and these may be the real-life characters or a cash-in on the story.

The fascade of the building contains text from the story along with brightly-coloured flowers and vines. Juliette looks down from the circular window on the top to see Romeo below.

I am not sure who the artist is for this beautiful artwork as it appears to be crossed out, but I thought that it was a beautiful piece and an addition to Shoreditch's street art scene along with adding a bit of context to the ancient history of the area.

The location of the former Curtain Theatre, where Shakespeare performed, has been undergoing renovations in the past couple of years.