London Graffiti

Pedrod7

Pedrod7

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Hi all
In a few weeks, I'm off to London with my son on a photo shoot from sunrise to sunset, we have some areas we plan on visiting, but not knowing the city that well, we are looking to shoot some interesting graffiti/artists, in some safe areas.

No offence to anyone, honestly, but there are areas we would like to avoid for fear of losing our gear to anyone with less moral scruples than people on this forum.

Any ideas where we could visit safely, and equally important, areas we would be best advised to avoid.

Yes I appreciate we could “lose“ our gear anywhere, but we all know areas we are familiar with, which are best avoided.

Any suggestion would be very much appreciated.

Best regards, Pedro.
 
Pedrod7 said:
Hi all
In a few weeks, I'm off to London with my son on a photo shoot from sunrise to sunset, we have some areas we plan on visiting, but not knowing the city that well, we are looking to shoot some interesting graffiti/artists, in some safe areas.

No offence to anyone, honestly, but there are areas we would like to avoid for fear of losing our gear to anyone with less moral scruples than people on this forum.

Any ideas where we could visit safely, and equally important, areas we would be best advised to avoid.

Yes I appreciate we could “lose“ our gear anywhere, but we all know areas we are familiar with, which are best avoided.

Any suggestion would be very much appreciated.

Best regards, Pedro.
Click to expand...

Hi Pedro,
I would suggest Banksys Tunnel on Leake Street which is underneath Waterloo Station, Leake Street. It is an authorised graffiti area. I have been there quite a few times and found it no problem.
There were a few artists working, another group were shooting a video as well. Other photographers were there too.
Its well lit, so as safe as its going to be.


Banksy's Tunnel 1 by iain blake, on Flickr


Banksy's Tunnel 3 by iain blake, on Flickr


Banksy's Tunnel 4 by iain blake, on Flickr


Random by iain blake, on Flickr

There is also the skatepark on the southbank which is popular too near the Tate Modern. That also is densely populated, as you'd expect, so again no problem.

I am not familiar enough with London to say which areas to avoid, but common sense will prevail, I am sure ;)
 
Hi Iain,

This is absolutely perfect for what I'm after, superb suggestion.
Thanks very much.

Pedro.
 
leake street is fine but its a little dirty/smelly and you will come across the odd drunk but it is fairly well populated
 
Just a note to say that I'd avoid the South Bank.

Somewhat surprisingly this is private property and unless you have a license from the hierarchy (which costs from memory) you may well be moved on by security - it's happened to me.

Having said that.. you may be lucky.. you could pretend you're a tourist.
 
Jerm said:
Just a note to say that I'd avoid the South Bank.

Somewhat surprisingly this is private property and unless you have a license from the hierarchy (which costs from memory) you may well be moved on by security - it's happened to me.

Having said that.. you may be lucky.. you could pretend you're a tourist.
Click to expand...

They dont usually bother if photographing the graffitti area where the skateboarders/bikers are, we have have whole gangs of TP members with bloody great DSLR's there with no problem. Where you might get an officious security guard is up above there, on the restaurant/bar/fountain area, I too have been moved on, but only once in more trips there with a camera than I care to remember ;)


To the OP - just use your common sense, I am a 5'2" woman with some expensive kit, never had a problem, even in the less salubrious areas, but always be aware of who and what is around you and just be sensible, you will be fine in most areas ;)
 
Fair comment Yvonne, though I'd probably add... avoid the weekends as there are thousands of tourists and hundreds of (licensed) street entertainers.. and therefore lots of security.
 
Jerm said:
Fair comment Yvonne, though I'd probably add... avoid the weekends as there are thousands of tourists and hundreds of (licensed) street entertainers.. and therefore lots of security.
Click to expand...

I would agree with avoiding the weekend, partly for the tourists and partly because there is always more skateboarders and stuff, so much harder to work with the graffiti walls too...well, not without constant danger of a skateboard landing on you :LOL:
 
Hi all,

Firstly thanks for the quick and enthusiastic replies.
Some good news above, and as usually happens, some bad news.
I'm fortunate enough to have retired so any day would work for me, however my son is still hard at work so it is planned for a Saturday.
I guess its a case of suck it and see what happens when we get there. As stated above we have other locations to visit also, so if it happens, it happens. If not, well at least I get to spend some quality time with my son.
I'm sure, whatever happens it will be a good day.

Thanks to all for your thoughts and I go, very much appreciated.
Pedro.
 
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