Banksy's Designated Graffiti Area

The lowdown

Among the ever-changing street art of Shoreditch survives a piece by Banksy himself, a stencil of a council-style sign reading that this is a designated graffiti area, signed off as if by officialdom. It is classic Banksy, mocking authority while quietly granting everyone permission to paint, and it has become a small landmark in the area's open-air gallery.

Surviving Banksys in London are increasingly rare, often stolen or painted over, so finding one still in place is a treat. It is free to see, on a street thick with murals and stencils, making it a perfect anchor for a wider free street-art wander around Shoreditch.