The last remaining Banksy murals in the streets of Tower Hamlets

In 2007, Tower Hamlets Council vowed to rid the streets of Banksy, but this summer the East End welcomed a brand new safari-themed mural.

Starting on August 5, the renowned Bristol-based graffiti artist Banksy embarked on a nine-day spree across London, creating a series of enigmatic, safari-themed artworks.

On the third day of his animal art trail, Banksi landed in Brick Lane. If you’ve strolled beneath the railway bridge that spans the lively street, you may have spotted the striking black silhouettes of three agile monkeys, which the artist spraypainted on 7 August 2024.

The series was set in motion a few days prior, when a goat teetering on the edge of a wall mysteriously appeared in Richmond, near Kew Gardens. The precarious goat was followed by two love-struck elephants poking out their trunks to touch each other between two blocked-out windows in Chelsea on the 6 August.

The elephants were followed by Brick Lane’s monkeys, a howling wolf in Peckham, two fishing pelicans in Walthamstow, a stretching cat in Cricklewood, piranhas on a police box in the City of London, a rhinoceros in Charlton and the grand finale on the shutters of London Zoo.

The ninth and final mural at the capital’s zoo — depicting a gorilla setting free a sea lion and birds while other animals watch on with shining eyes — provides us with an insight as to what the whole stint was about. Incarceration and freedom are common threads, as each mural can be interpreted as depicting an animal on the run from its cage, galavanting across bridges and streets into the night.

Brick Lane’s new resident monkeys don’t mark the first time Banksy’s artwork has appeared in the East End. The world-famous graffiti artist has spraypainted many-a-wall in our streets, but his signature style hasn’t always been to Tower Hamlets Council’s taste.

In 2007, the council even vowed to remove Banksy’s graffiti from the borough and said it would paint over any illegal public works, treating the street artist’s signature designs as vandalism. 

‘Tower Hamlets Council takes the cleanliness of the borough very seriously and is committed to removing all graffiti as soon as possible,’ an official statement read. 

‘Whilst some graffiti is considered to be art, we know that many of our residents think graffiti in areas where they live, such as local housing estates, is an eyesore.’

But that didn’t stop the elusive artist, whose identity remains unknown since he began making a name for himself in the 1990s. 

As his Sarafi spraypainting odyssey comes to an end, we revisit the surviving Banksy-originals that you can glimpse around Tower Hamlets.

Tucked away in a small car park off Chrisp Street in Poplar, a fading remnant of Banksy’s politically charged yet humorous street art can be glimpsed. The bulk of the work has been covered with subsequent graffiti, but you can still make two stick-figure, cartoonish legs.

Known as the ‘Phone Tap’ mural, this quirky work first appeared in August 2011 when the phone hacking scandal was making major headlines in the press. With his tongue-and-cheek stencil sketch, Banksy refers to the controversy and shines a light on the corruption of the biggest media corporation of the day.

Before its defacement, ‘Phone Tap’ depicted a stick figure next to a real-life water tap, which seems to be ringing like a phone. The stick figure, befuddled, says ‘Oh no… my tap’s been phoned.’ 

Cleverly blending existing urban furniture with his sketch, Banksy delivers a playful yet pointed critique of the phone hacking scandal linked to the now-defunct News of the World. The paper was owned by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch until it ceased publication in 2011 and Murdoch was forced to officially apologise after it was revealed that the phone of murdered schoolgirl Millie Dowler had been backed by the paper’s employees.

The punning punchline is no longer visible, nor is the ringing water tap, but it’s still worth paying a visit to the Chrisp Street car park to catch a glimpse of the satirical mural before it’s finally lost to time. Its location in the shadow of Canary Wharf, which used to be the news media centre of London, is apt. 

A certain irreverence for authority dominates Banksy’s oeuvre. That’s why in 2007 ‘Flower Painter’ appeared on the corner of Pollard Row and Pollard Street despite the council’s previous vow to banish the graffiti artist from the borough.

Painted on the side of the Bethnal Green Men’s Working Club, the original mural possessed a simple and humble beauty. Before it was damaged, the work featured a vivid painter in overalls, crouched as if he had just completed painting the yellow street lines. Bored by the repetitive nature of the task, he appears to have spontaneously extended the rigid street markings onto the pavement and eventually the wall, transforming them into a giant and sprawling yellow sunflower.

Since 2007, the mural has been heavily marred. The council soon removed the yellow paint on the pavement, and subsequent graffiti as well as a replacement wall has entirely eclipsed the croched painter in overalls. Nevertheless, a substantial amount of the blooming sunflower is still visible to passers-by, perhaps on their way to enjoy a raucous night at the historic men’s club known for its transgressive fringe nights.

‘Flower Painter’ and ‘Phone Tap’ might be in poor form, but Brick Lane’s recent arrivals have added a fresh lick of paint to a borough that has historically tried to erase any signs of the rebellious graffiti artist. Let’s hope for more in the future. 

If you enjoyed this article, you might like to read Artist Ali Smith: Printing East London’s urban landscape