The Murals Are Now Property Marketing; A Formal Protection Register Would Help
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat contribute reporting from somewhere between Old Street and Liverpool Street.
The Shoreditch street art scene, which gave the neighbourhood much of its early visual identity in the 2000s and which became, by the mid-2010s, a defining tourist attraction in its own right, is in 2026 in a more complicated state than visitor numbers suggest. The murals are still there. The walking tours are still operating. What has shifted is the underlying culture that produced the art in the first place.
What Was
The original Shoreditch street art ecosystem, anchored by figures including Banksy, ROA, Stik, Ben Eine, Phlegm, and a long tail of less-famous artists, depended on a combination of cheap warehouse space (for studios), neglected wall surfaces (for canvases), and a borough council that, on the whole, took a pragmatic view of unauthorised work that other councils would have removed.
The art that resulted, accumulated over roughly fifteen years, transformed the visual character of the neighbourhood. It also, secondarily, became one of the most photographed street-art districts in Europe, drawing tour buses, photographers, and a steady international visitor flow.
What Has Drifted
What has drifted, in the past several years, is the production side of the ecosystem. The cheap warehouse space is mostly gone. The young artists who would, in 2010, have been able to afford a studio in Hackney Wick or Bethnal Green are now in Tottenham, Walthamstow, or Margate. The walls are still there. The new murals are increasingly commissioned, sponsored, or curated rather than spontaneous.
This is not, in itself, a tragedy. Commissioned work is often excellent. The Shoreditch Street Art tour, run by various operators, remains a genuinely good way to spend an afternoon. What has changed is the relationship between the art and the neighbourhood that produced it. The art is now, in many places, a marketing asset for the property developers whose flats overlook the murals. The artists who made it cannot afford to live in those flats.
The Banksy Question
The Banksy question, for any neighbourhood that hosts his work, is whether the murals get protected, removed, or absorbed into the property economics of the surrounding building. Several Shoreditch Banksys have been removed by property owners and sold at auction. Others have been preserved behind perspex. Others have been painted over by accident or by intent. The pattern is inconsistent, and Hackney Council has, on several occasions, struggled to articulate a coherent policy.
What might be useful, in the next several years, is a formal Shoreditch street-art protection register, with listed-equivalent status for major works and clear procedures for adjudicating preservation versus removal. Other cities have developed similar frameworks. Hackney has not, as far as I can tell, developed its equivalent.
What I Hope
What I hope, on this question, is that the Future Shoreditch Plan’s stated commitment to protecting the area’s “unique architectural character” extends to its visual character. Street art is part of that character. The artists who made it are, in many cases, no longer in a position to remake it. What we have inherited is therefore worth treating with at least the seriousness we would treat a more conventional cultural asset. I would like to see the council, in the next council year, develop a formal policy on this.
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