The hustle and bustle of London is a perfect way for new previously unseen artists to make a name for themselves. The street art scene in London is probably the biggest of all the cities in the UK. London attracts artists from around the world to get up on the walls of this concrete playground and, as a result, attracts a lot of different styles which makes London an ideal place to go search for inspiration.

London’s East End has to be the most condensed area of street art. Shoreditch and Bricklane are a haven for both new and experienced artists: this is where the big names come to play. Regulars to the East End include ATG Crew, Eine, Banksy, Eelus. Snub23 and Fark FK. It really is a fantastic place to come graffiti spotting.

One of the most famous London events this year has to be Cans Festival. The tunnel in Leake Street, right beside Waterloo in the centre of London, has involved hundreds of artists that have come from right around the world. Cans Festival, set up by Banksy, has gathered huge media attention and allowed many previously unknown artists to achieve mainstream following. If you have any form of interest in graffiti and street art (I guess you do, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this) The Tunnel in Leake Street is a location you must visit the next time you are close to London. It’s a really inspiring location for artists and fans a like.

Thanks to HowAboutNo! for the London images.

For those of you that don’t know, Cans Festival was an event where Banksy invited a huge range of stencil artists to come and stencil the walls of an abandoned tunnel in Leake Street, London. I visited the Cans Festival site recently, away from the crowds that gathered there during the event. Even though the street installations had been removed, the art on the walls was as vibrant as the day it was sprayed (despite some dirty tags on the pieces). I could quite easily tell you about the work of the big artists that sprayed in Leake Street, but you can look anywhere on the internet to find that info out - what I want to take a closer look at is the smaller artists work.

There was an blank area in the tunnel left for any stencil artists to come and paint and they came in their masses. So much so, you’d be lucky to find a blank area in the tunnel now. Below are some of my favourites. Unfortunately, when I was there I didn’t take pictures of all the work I enjoyed so I think i’ll be taking a return trip to get pictures of some of the other great work.

Who wants sushi?

Lego man.

Dirty mouth Dog - great piece of work, I love the colours on this.

Gordon Brown on the 10 Pence coin. A little jab about the 10p tax rate?

Big thank you for some of the pictures from the Cans Festival flickr group.