East London is packed with some of the best pieces of street art in the world! Walk down any road in Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, Hoxton or Hackney and you’ll see what we mean.

By far the best way to discover this art for yourself is to simply go out and wander up and down the streets and alleyways. You’ll discover an abundance of pieces – from trashy graffiti tags to works of mind-blowing skill.

WHERE IS THE BEST EAST LONDON STREET ART?

The best place to start is Shoreditch Overground station. Head in any direction from here and you’ll find something fantastic. Here are our highlights:

Chance Street

Head straight across Bethnal Green Road to Chance Street and you’ll find two unmissable pieces of artwork. The first is a huge hedgehog by Belgian street artist ROA, who is known for his large sketch-like urban animals.

Best East London Street Art - ROA Hedgehog - Essential Living

As is the case with street art, the original masterpiece has been ‘developed’ with a few tags and a gang of native Americans appearing to hunt the hedgehog.

Further down the road you cannot fail to notice the vibrant colours of a full building mural by German artist MadC.

Best East London Street Art - MadC - Essential Living

Ebor Street

Hop a road over onto Ebor Street and you'll see two works by Ben Eine, who's well known for his colourful alphabet artwork that adorns walls and roller shutters around London. One side reads 'Extortionists' while the other reads 'Like Nothing Else' (recently replacing his long-standing 'Protagonists' wording).

 

Nothing Else Fabulous new work on Ebor Street by @einesigns

A post shared by Brick Lane Art (@brick_lane_art) on

 

Best East London Street Art - Ebor Street - Essential Living

Sclater Street

Heading towards Bethnal Green, Sclater Street offers up a plethora of different designs. In fact, it’s probably one of the most street art packed streets in the area. Oddly, the derelict building below is one of our favourite areas, with dozens of unique tags and quirky designs hidden away here and there.

Best East London Street Art - Sclater Street - Essential Living

Best East London Street Art - Sclater Street - Essential Living

Brick Lane

At the end of the road you’ll come to Brick Lane, and if you can drag yourself away from the bagels, coffee shops and retro cereals then there’s plenty to see. Just take a look at the pictures below:

Best East London Street Art - Zabou Brick Lane - Essential Living

Best East London Street Art - Brick Lane - Essential Living

Best East London Street Art - Brick Lane - Essential Living

Hanbury Street

Off Brick Lane down Hanbury Street you'll find a fantastic piece by Dan Kitchener, who's known for his iconic urban scenes lit with neon colours and headlights. Check out the full mural on Google Street View here.

Best East London Street Art - Dan Kitchener - Essential Living

In fact, we loved Dan Kitchener's work so much that we commissioned him for a mural at Vantage Point:

Best East London Street Art - Dan Kitchener - Essential Living

Ellsworth Street

Once you’re in Bethnal Green there’s still plenty to see. Just off the high street of Bethnal Green Road is Ellsworth Street. On one side are a couple of impressive looking wasps, but on the other is The Sun Tavern, which offers takeaway Poitín (a form of Irish moonshine). Just below this takeaway hatch is a brilliant piece by James Cochran, aka, akaJimmyC!

Best East London Street Art - Aka JimmyC - Essential Living

James has a distinct style of composing all his work from dots and dashes of spray paint, and one of his pieces – his mural of David Bowie in Brixton – was catapulted to the international stage last year following Bowie's death.

 

#brixtonbowie

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Chrisp Street

If you head further East into Poplar you can even find a Banksy! Look for a huge chihuahua on the corner of Chrisp Street and you'll find the Banksy in the car park behind.

 

Image by @korayhussein. #ChrispStreet #CanaryWharf #London #maybeLDNer

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#banksy #streetart #streetartlondon #streetarteverywhere #chrispstreet #allsaints

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Street art in East London

So there's just a few of the best pieces of street art in East London, but really there are hundreds more to find!

And they're constantly evolving too. Take the colourful lion's head at the top of this blog for example. It doesn't exist anymore, after being daubed over by someone else's work! That's the nature of street art and that's part of what makes it so special. And because of it's abundance in East London, places like Bethnal Green and Shoreditch have become vibrant, exciting areas to live, work and play.

 

Bethnal Green: The Essential Guide - Essential Living

Mark Flint

Author

Mark is a regular contributor to the Essential Living blog and shares all the latest news and sourcing the very best content for our customers.