Leake Street Tunnel

The lowdown

Leake Street Arches is London's only free, legal graffiti tunnel, a three-hundred-metre road running under the platforms of Waterloo station, open to walk through every day at no charge. It started in 2008 when Banksy held his Cans Festival here, and it never stopped.

Because anyone can paint, nothing lasts. The walls are a churn of murals, tags, stencils and full-colour pieces that get covered over within days, so the tunnel you walk through today is genuinely unique to that week. Come back in a month and it is a completely different place. You will often find artists mid-piece, cans rattling, and they are happy to be watched.

It is gritty, loud and brilliant, lit up but with a proper underground edge, and at the far end it opens out into bars and street food in the arches. Bring your own spray can and a wall is yours, no permit, no charge. It is one of the most alive free things in the city.