Best Street Art Tour in Bristol England

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Street art is lamented by just about every community in the world. On one hand, it’s art — sometimes beautiful and truly inspired; on the other hand, it can be seen as vandalism and defacing of public property.

In Bristol, a city just an hour and a half drive from London in the south west of England, street art is alive and thriving, despite efforts to prosecute the artists, or vandals – however you might see it.

For me, the highlight of the time we spent in Bristol was the Bristol Street Art Tour with WheretheWall, which taught us a lot about the situation and introduced us to a bunch of the top artists in the community.

bsat stokes raccoon
Graffiti raccoons

The tour starts from the College Green and takes you around town to see some of the best and most creative street art in the city. Our tour was led by the incredibly knowledgeable John Nation; John has worked with the Bristol youth — including Banksy — for decades, trying to provide a legal way for them to showcase their talents and provide something enjoyable for the community.

He and their other tour guides have insider knowledge that makes the tour both up-to-date with the newest art and thoroughly educational. We got to see some of the famous Banksy paintings, along with commissioned pieces and we even watched some of the up-and-coming Bristol artists at work.

It would be impossible to talk about all of the art we saw along our tour, but I picked out a handful of my favorites to highlight the diversity the tour provides.

The Well-Hung Lover by Banksy

The Well-Hung Lover by Banksy
The Well-Hung Lover by Banksy

Banksy is a Bristol native and one of the most-recognizable names in street art. He was the only artist I was familiar with before this tour, so it seemed appropriate to start with one of his pieces.

The Well-Hung Lover depicts Banksy’s former business partner in a bit of a compromising position; allegedly they had a falling out after many of Banksy’s pieces that had been “lost” were found in his possession.

The Well-Hung Lover was stenciled on a busy street under the cover of night. The blue splotches of paint were from a drive-by paintball “attack”; apparently not everyone is a fan of Banksy’s work.

The Vandal by Nick Walker

The Vandal by Nick Walker
The Vandal by Nick Walker

Nick Walker created this six-story piece by projecting a stencil he had made onto the wall from the building across the street.

This wasn’t the largest street art we saw on the tour, but it was fairly close; it took Nick four nights to finish it, working up close to the building and then coming down once an hour to gain fresh perspective.

I really liked the vandal character — a recurring theme in Nick’s work.

Untitled by Stik

Untitled by Stik
Untitled by Stik

Stik is a London-based artist known for drawing stick figures. This was probably the most minimalistic of everything we saw on the tour, but I liked it anyway.

Standing almost 9 stories tall, you have to really crane your neck to take in the towering stick-figure giants glancing down at you. Like The Vandal, this art was commissioned as part of See No Evil, a giant street art festival held in Bristol.

Stokes Croft Area

Halfway through the tour, we moved on to the Stokes Croft area of Bristol, known as a more bohemian neighborhood. The art in this area was being actively worked on, and John informed us that most of it lasts for a few hours to a few days before someone else comes in and either defaces it, or replaces it with something of their own.

We got the chance to watch one artist at work, and found quite a few pieces that we liked in this area. It’s a shame to think many of them might not exist anymore today, but it also adds to the vibrancy of the area.

Brunswick Square Construction Site

Brunswick Square Tagging
Brunswick Square Tagging

The hoarders surrounding the Brunswick Square construction site were originally painted a plain blue and the walls were quickly tagged (and covered up, and re-tagged) by locals. WHERETHEWALL worked with the construction manager to arrange for well-respected members of the tagging community to create commissioned art for the hoarders; once the new art went up, the illegal tagging stopped.

Personally, I am not a fan of tagging — I can appreciate the skill for quality tags, but it just doesn’t do anything for me aesthetically. Still, I liked how WHERETHEWALL was able to get legal work for the artists.

The two-hour tour went by fast, and I could easily have walked around with John for another hour or two. It was clear we had only barely scratched the surface of what Bristol street art has to offer.

If you’re interested in a tour, you can book through their website or by emailing bookings@wherethewall.com. Not surprisingly, Bristol made it into the list of Best Cities for Street Art.

A big thank you to VisitBritain and VisitBristol for hooking us up with this awesome street art tour. See all the coverage of our trip to the south west of England.

(As always, all thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own honest reflection on our travel experiences).

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Best Street Art Tour in Bristol England

20 thoughts on “Best Street Art Tour in Bristol England

  1. Tamara (Globe Guide) says:

    I actually don’t have a problem with street art, but only when it’s done in a contained area (such as Melbourne’s Hosier Lane). Graffiti on the other hand…

  2. Michelle says:

    That Stik Stick Art is probably my favorite. It goes so well with the building, I didn’t actually notice it on first glance. Very cool tour.

  3. Katie says:

    Art is totally not my thing, and I don’t often stop to look at it, Some street art, however, definitely intrigues me…particularly Banksy. Something about street art is so much more interesting than art in a museum (for me). There is a spot near my apartment in Seoul – a whole village of street art. I love jogging the streets and having something to look at while exercising!

  4. Mary says:

    Oh man, art is not my thing really but I love a lot of these. My favorite is the well hung lover by Banksy, that is hysterical on quite a few levels. I think i’d like to see more from him for sure, so clever! Maybe art is more my thing than I’ve been giving credit to. Thanks.

  5. Alina Popescu says:

    I adore street art! Especially when you get to experience different styles and color palettes. Loved your photos and the first ones remind me of some street art I saw in Dusseldorf.

  6. anto says:

    Seems like Bristol is a great place for street art. I’m not much of a fan unless it’s really well done and I can totally see how this cheers Bristol up a bit!

    • Laura Lynch says:

      I agree with that. It has to be really great art for it to be worth it. That’s the best part about the art in Bristol. Most of it is really good.

  7. Mags says:

    That’s some pretty impressive street art. Banksy is the only artist I had heard of before too, but I really like the other stuff as well.

    • Laura Lynch says:

      I prefer the more “arty” pieces to the graffiti-like art, too, so Banksy is always a good choice.

  8. Karla | karlaroundtheworld says:

    I am enjoying a lot of street art here in San Francisco, so I bet I would enjoy the one in Bristols. I really like seeing street art 🙂

    • Laura Lynch says:

      I’ve seen some in San Fran. You’d definitely love it in Bristol. The art there is just incredible.

  9. Nic says:

    So cool! I am really into street art so this is really interesting, I love going exploring looking for it wherever I go! I’ve seen a few Banksys in Liverpool and we have some great street art in Manchester too!

  10. Sophie says:

    This is great! Bristol is my home town so whenever I go back I get to see all of these! I’m so glad you enjoyed it and got to see a part of my city

  11. Ella says:

    I love street art and I had no idea Bristol has such a great street art scene. Thanks for sharing your awesome photos! 🙂

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