Whitechapel Street Art

I’ve written before about my Jack The Ripper Tours in Whitechapel, London and even posted a few photos too. Today I arrived there with an hour to spare so decided to have a little look around as I often do in this area.

Whitechapel is of course famous for its poverty and crime problems. In our version of Monopoly, it is the cheapest priced street in London. These days it is one of the most vibrant districts of this huge city with boutique shops, markets and incredible clothing stores that you won’t find anywhere else.

The reason for its vibrancy is that it is transitioning from the poverty that was gripping the area long before Jack The Ripper and characterised the area until the begging of the millennia.  In fact, you only have to stray a few minutes away from the popular streets before you risk finding some old style Whitechapel and at night many areas have what is politely called a Gritty Feeling or unsafe to the rest of us.

I do feel very comfortable here in the day time and love the mix of history, cultures and hipster quality of the place. You don’t even have to venture inside the markets, pop up restaurants or vintage stores, a lot of it is easy to see if you know where to look.

Below is just some of the art I photographed today on my trust iPad. Some of the big names in street art live locally and it’s hard to deny that artists like Banksy,Roa, Invader, Ronzo, Conor Harrigton, Don Smith and C215 don’t add huge splashes of colour to what would be quite grim looking areas.

  

    

The scale of some of the art such as the above is astonishing.
    
    
    
  

I’m not sure I would leave my car in this spot. No-one else had ventured down here when I arrived but when people saw me taking photos, 5 or 6 more came to have a look!  
    
   

Let’s hope that as the area continues its gentrification, there I still room for this type of culture to flourish. For the moment though East London must be a contender for being the number 1 location for street art in the world.

If you’d like to visit these places or indeed go on my unique day time Jack The Ripper Tour then visit Jack The Ripper Day Time Tour