Street art and graffiti in London - from a walking tour

My third street art and graffiti tour in London did not disappoint. Thanks to my guide Greg and the company "Free tours by foot" I had a great time walking around the east end of London looking at art.

Each year some of the street art is different from the year before. I saw quite a few new pieces up this summer.

The first piece of art I saw was by an artist named "Phlegm". (Most street artists have pseudonyms.)

He is from Wales, but now lives in Sheffield. His background is in cartoons and illustrations. This can be seen by the types of characters he paints and the black and white paints used. He spent 3 days on this mural. It was painted with a spray can. The owner of the building gave his permission to paint on that wall. It was completed 6 1/2 years ago. I am a bit surprised this piece has survived this long without getting painted over by another artist's work. You can see that some other graffiti artists have added to the painting (what they call a "tag" - the person's signature). One person painted "fussy" in way that does not interfere with the piece. This is called "fame bombing". It is a sign of respect to not cover up the artist's work with your art. Another person however did paint a tag on top of Phlegm's art. That is disrespectful to the original artist. It is interesting that Phlegm did not include his own tag to his piece. This street art is on Heneage Street in east London.