Welcome to Bethnal Green! (A Walk Down Hackney Road)

I recently moved to Bethnal Green. I’ve never lived or even spent much time in east London, so this was quiet a change of scenery or a good chance to discover a new part of London.Even though it’s been over a month, it was only a few days ago that I finally found some time to explore the area.

The view from my room to Cambridge Heath station

I walked down Hackney Road and there are two things that you will quickly notice; every few steps there is a bag/luggage store! I don’t know how much demand there could be!

And the second and more interesting thing is the street art and graffiti all over the place. Most of the street arts are actually quiet amazing and not really random but done by very well-known artists giving this area a very unique look.

You can’t avoid them! they are everywhere!

I did not know that some of these are very famous pieces and done by internationally renowned artists until I started uploading some of my photos on instagram. Thanks to the enthusiastic community there the name of those artists were revealed to me and I’ve been looking into their works with fascination.

ROA

ROA is the pseudonym of a graffiti artist from Ghent, Belgium. He has created works on the streets of cities across Europe and the United States. ROA generally paints wild animals or birds in black and white. ( wikipedia)

STIK

Stik is a British graffiti artist based in London.Stik paints stick figure-like people as street art. He has worked in the northeast London area of Hackney, especially in Shoreditch. He liaises at the Central Saint Martins Graffiti Dialogues and has been funded to run graffiti workshops.He paints unauthorised art as well as pieces that are authorised.( wikipedia)

PEZ

Pez’ (Spanish for ‘fish)(born 1976) is a Spanish graffiti artist. He started painting graffiti in 1999 in his hometown Barcelona. Specifically, he got into street art writing his signature, which soon took the shape of a fish. “Little by little his tags turned into the shape of a smiling blue fish, and he became a celebrity throughout Barcelona. During the last years, Pez has exhibited in Bogotá, Barcelona, Hamburg, Paris, London, NY, Portland and Los Angeles.Nowadays, Pez is showing his art in galleries, festivals, international art fairs and art auctions.( wikipedia)

and some work by ALO:

There are plenty more everywhere in Hackney/Old Street areas, very inspiring work and it’s hard to find out the identity of all these artists. Many of them won’t last long neither, I noticed a lot of STIK works are already gone when I tried to look for more. That’s a shame as all these drawings and painting have created quiet an amazing atmosphere in this area and there’s something to discover in every corner.

The discoveries continues …