Anytime a new work suspected to belong to Banksy pops up in the UK, it creates a national buzz and, of course, a new wave of speculation around their real identity. We may never find that out, but there are places all over the UK where you can go and see an IRL Bansky for yourself.
Sadly, a lot of these works don't last very long. Much of the time, it's removed and sold for millions at auction (not sure how they'd feel about that) and other times they're just painted over entirely. You'll find a lot of surviving works in London, including a new piece in Finsbury Park that quickly got vandalised. Beyond the capital, here's everywhere you'll find Banksy pieces still going strong.
Birmingham
Banksy's Christmas Reindeers appeared on Vyse Street in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. It depicts a two red nosed reindeers appearing to whisk away a bench, à la Santa's sleigh. It was created to highlight the issue of homelessness in the city.
Brighton
One of the street artists most famous murals can be found here. The original ‘Kissing Policeman’ popped up on the side of the Prince Albert Pub on Trafalger Street in 2011. It was removed from the wall and auctioned off three years later but you can still find a copy of the iconic image in the exact same place.
Bristol
Before he rose to worldwide fame, Banksy perfected his craft all over the streets of Bristol. That means that there's ample opportunity to see his work here, although several, such as ‘Achoo’, have been removed to sell at auction.
You can find ‘Angel Bust’, an angel statue with a pot of pink paint over her head, at Bristol Museum; ‘Girl with the Pierced Eardrum’ at Albion Docks; ‘Well Hung Lover’ on College Green and ‘Marsh Lane Valentine’ in Barton Hill.
There are loads more reputed Banksys in the city but it's hard to know for sure how many are actually his work. You can walk around some of the most famous bits from his portfolio with various tours on offer, such as this one with Visit Bristol.
East Anglia
The summer of 2021 saw a load of murals appear in seemingly random locations by the sea. Banksy claimed responsibility for them in a three minute video entitled ‘The Great British Spraycation’. You can find graffiti from that series in Cromer, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, King's Lynn, Gorleston-on- Sea and Oulton Broad.
They include Banksy's tag and the words ‘Go Big or Go Home’ sprayed on a house in Great Yarmouth's Merrivale Model Village, and hermit crabs holding up signs reading ‘Luxury Rentals Only’ in Cromer.
Hull
Hull has one confirmed Banksy, with three other suspected to be his doing. The verified piece can be found on Scott Street Bridge. It depicts a young boy sat down wearing a cape, a colander as a helmet and holding a pencil in place of a sword. Next to him reads the words ‘draw the raised bridge’.
Margate
Margate is home to one of the artist's more recent pieces, known as Valentine's Day Mascara. Visitors can find it on a brick wall in Grosvenor Place and shows a 1950s housewife with a black eye and a missing tooth, highlighting the issue of domestic violence.
Reading
If you venture to Reading Gaol, the place where Oscar Wilde was banged up for two years, you'll see Banksy's depiction of an inmate escaping the prison walls with a rope made out of paper, weighed down by a typewriter.
Southampton
During the pandemic, Banksy revealed a piece titled ‘Game Changer’ at the Southampton General Hospital. The original was sold and raised £16.7m for NHS charities, but a replica can still be found in the building.
St Leonards, Sussex
‘Tesco Sandcastles’ appeared on St Leonard's seafront back in 2010. Now protected by a sheet of perspex, it shows a child building sandcastles each branded with the word ‘Tesco’. It was revealed at a time when the artist had quite a lot of beef with the supermarket and produced a collection of pieces criticising it.
Weston-super-mare
Remember Dismaland? It was Banksy's temporary dystopian theme park in Weston-super-mare advertised as ‘the UK’s most disappointing new visitor attraction’. After it closed in 2015, materials from the buildings were recycled into shelters for homeless migrants.
The one thing left over from the exhibit is the ‘Dismaland Pinwheel’, which can be found inside the city's Italian Gardens.
Did you see that these are the UK's most beautiful gardens to visit this spring?
Plus: this supermarket has been voted the best in Britain for wine.
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