Tag: Camden Town

6887. Stucley Place Camden Town, London

Drake, Stucley Place, Camden Town, London, April 2025
Drake, Stucley Place, Camden Town, London, April 2025

Wandering around without a set route is quite the best way to find street art in my experience. Following a map or guide only takes you to specific places, and it is by turning down a back street, or catching a glimpse of something in your peripheral vision and going to investigate it that makes exploring places so much fun. I see too many people navigating their way around the place with their head down looking a little screen and Google Maps or some other way finder and missing all the incredible people, architecture, events or nature that surrounds us. That’s enough sanctimonious nonsense. I found this superb Drake piece while wandering about aimlessly with my head and eyes up.

Drake, Stucley Place, Camden Town, London, April 2025
Drake, Stucley Place, Camden Town, London, April 2025

This is an outstanding greyscale portrait piece by Drake, an artist whose work I have seen in Bristol, but that I don’t know much about him. The piece has a commercial element to it in so much as it is promoting Nemesis, a tattoo parlour – perhaps a friend of Drake’s. Certainly a superb piece.

6886. Camden High Street, London

Dave Bain, Camden High Street, London, April 2025
Dave Bain, Camden High Street, London, April 2025

It is always gratifying to find pieces by artists I am familiar with when I am on my travels, especially if they are from the West Country, so to come across this large mural in Camden Town by Dave Bain was rather special. Camden High Street and the area around it is curious in that it hosts the full range of art from high-end murals to tagging and everything in between.

Dave Bain, Camden High Street, London, April 2025
Dave Bain, Camden High Street, London, April 2025

This mural is full of colour and is a wonderful representation of the vibrancy of the area, with a punk character, musician and generally cool people having a good time. I think the days when Camden Town was a special place have long since gone, and it is now a honey pot for tourists with all the customary trappings, and references to its cool history. Maybe I am being a little harsh, but it is not how I remember it as a kid. Starbucks I am sure are rightly proud of this fine Mural.

6885. Harmood Street, Camden Town, London

Irony, Harmood Street, Camden Town, London, April 2025
Irony, Harmood Street, Camden Town, London, April 2025

The highlight of my recent trip to Camden Town, was finding several pieces by Irony, including this one, that I had never seen ‘in the flesh’ before. He really is one of my favourite artists, and all of his work is of the highest quality. What I particularly like is that he seems to be equally comfortable painting high-end festival walls or spots like this one – he isn’t precious at all, and is a very modest gentleman.

Irony, Harmood Street, Camden Town, London, April 2025
Irony, Harmood Street, Camden Town, London, April 2025

There is a hell of a lot going on in this wonderful detailed portrait piece, and symbolism that I don’t think I will get to the bottom of, although it is possible that he is ‘patching up’ the piece in a clever way. While writing this post, I have found out that this is a repair job on a piece that was originally painted in 2018, and so the plasters and the eye patch are probably literally covering up blemishes in the original.

Irony (from a photograph by the artist in 2018 and posted on Instagram), Harmood Road, Camden Town, London
Irony (from a photograph by the artist in 2018 and posted on Instagram), Harmood Street, Camden Town, London

The facelift is quite stunning, and as you can see from this photograph taken by the artist of the original piece, the portrait has taken on a quite different persona. It is an amazing recognition of his talent and respect from others, that his work is still there seven years on in the first place.

Irony, Harmood Street, Camden Town, London, April 2025
Irony, Harmood Street, Camden Town, London, April 2025

As ever, outstanding work. You can see more of his pieces in this short gallery.

6865. Chalk Farm Road, Camden Town, London

Apparan, Chalk Farm Road, Camden Town, London, April 2025
Apparan, Chalk Farm Road, Camden Town, London, April 2025

One of the most noticeable things about photographing street art in London is that there seem to be a great deal more paste ups and wheatpaste artists than in Bristol. Perhaps this is a function of a huge amount more wall space to choose from, as well as a cultural thing.

Apparan, Chalk Farm Road, Camden Town, London, April 2025
Apparan, Chalk Farm Road, Camden Town, London, April 2025

This wonderful wheatpaste piece, by Apparan (no stranger to Natural Adventures), features a beautiful portrait of a woman and a snail. The piece is called ‘way home’ and was pasted up in December 2023 during a bit of a wheatpaste jam as far as I can make out. It has worn very well indeed.

6864. Harmood Street, Camden Town, London

Irony, Harmood Street, Camden Town, London, April 2025
Irony, Harmood Street, Camden Town, London, April 2025

On 8 April this year, I took a trip to London to watch the mighty Arsenal swat away Real Madrid in what was without doubt the best football match I have ever been to – and I have been to a fair few. The kick-off was a late one, so rather than catch a very late train home to Bristol I decided to stay over in London with my sister, and then visit my uncle and aunt the next morning. After my visit, I had a few hours to kill and decided to walk to Camden Town and snap up a few doors and some street art. This outstanding portrait piece from Irony was one of the first I saw on my ten-mile walk.

Irony, Harmood Street, Camden Town, London, April 2025
Irony, Harmood Street, Camden Town, London, April 2025

Irony, who is one of the most talented street artists ever in my view, is known for his portraits of young women, and this one has been plastered all over social media recently, so it was a genuine surprise and pleasure to come across it.

Irony, Harmood Street, Camden Town, London, April 2025
Irony, Harmood Street, Camden Town, London, April 2025

The artist has captured a mood so perfectly in this piece and the slight downward tilt of the subject’s head conveys some kind of body language that the viewer can pick up on. Obviously, the most striking part of the piece is the stunning blue hair, perfectly presented. This is a great piece from a great artist.

2845. Camden Town, London

Digging deeper into the archives. I took this picture in November 2017 in Camden Town, a full year and five months after it was painted by JXC. Frankly it is probably as good a photorealistic piece you are going to find anywhere, anytime. Why didn’t I post it before? I baffle even myself.

JXC, Camden Town, London, November 2017
JXC, Camden Town, London, November 2017

The picture may feel familiar and that is because it Chunk from the film The Goonies although with the addition of a tattoo on his stomach of JXC. I met the artist at the Cheltenham Paint festival last year, and he is such an incredibly nice guy and so modest with it.

JXC, Camden Town, London, November 2017
JXC, Camden Town, London, November 2017

It can be difficult to process that this piece has been painted with spray paint, and the sharpness of the patterns on the shirt are simply extraordinary. Similarly the out of focus background adds to the apparent authenticity of the piece. A small miracle.

Thursday doors – 23 May 2019

Doors 72 – Doors from Camden Town from November 2017

I am now scraping the residues from a very deep and rather empty door barrel. I had a choice… not to post any doors today, or get something old out of the door quickly and efficiently…I went with the latter.

Here are three doors from a street art hunting trip to Camden Town, London back in November 2017:

Thursday Door, Camden Town, November 2017
Thursday Door, Camden Town, November 2017

Wheatpasted door, Face the Strange (top) and CodeFC (bottom), Camden Town, November 2017
Wheatpasted door, Face the Strange (top) and CodeFC (bottom), Camden Town, November 2017

A rather plain and neglected door, Camden Town, November 2017
A rather plain and neglected door, Camden Town, November 2017

So there you are. I’ll leave you to decide whether this post was worth it. I am (in case you hadn’t noticed) a bit of a creature of habit, so to do this was more comfortable than missing a week.

Maybe I’ll have time to do something a little more imaginative next week.

For more doors take a good look at the Norm 2.0 blog – the brains behind Thursday Doors where there are links to yet more doors in the comments section at the end.

 

by Scooj

1318. Castlehaven Road, Camden Town (1)

My not-so-recent trip to Camden Town took me back to some places that I had been to on previous visits. This was a particular joy to behold. Always, seeing Dzia pieces is thrilling but to see one so perfectly worked into a wall with an existing piece is just perfect.

Dzia, Castlehaven Road, Camden Town, November 2017
Dzia, Castlehaven Road, Camden Town, November 2017

I first saw this wall, with only the Dotmaster piece in September 2016, but the additional character that the Dzia pigeon has given it works so well. I love the clever touch of the pigeon’s heart, as if it is saying I love this piece.

Dzia, Castlehaven Road, Camden Town, November 2017
Dzia, Castlehaven Road, Camden Town, November 2017

One just has to marvel at the way the lines and shapes that Dzia draws, which on their own don’t make any sense, come together to create such astonishingly lifelike creatures that appear to be animated. Such clever work from this exceptional Belgian artist.

1270. Camden Town van (2)

Following on swiftly from my last post, I have another van from Camden Town, beautifully decorated, this time by Sr.X, a Spanish street artist who now resides in London.

Sr. X, Camden Town, London, November 2017
Sr. X, Camden Town, London, November 2017

His work reminds me very much of the cartoons created by Glen Baxter. There is a retro feel going on here which is peppered with contemporary references and some quirky dark humour.

Sr. X, Camden Town, London, November 2017
Sr. X, Camden Town, London, November 2017

This is a beautifully worked piece that I feel very lucky to have stumbled across. It always pays to keep your eyes open. You can see more of Sr.X’s stunning work on his website.

1269. Camden Town van (1)

On a trip to Camden Town in November 2017 I took a very long stroll around the area part of which took in this backstreet where market sellers parked up their vans. This being Camden Town I guess it should have come as no surprise that the vans would have been finely decorated by London street artists.

Himbad and Dotmaster, Camden Town, London, November 2017
Himbad and Dotmaster, Camden Town, London, November 2017

This van played host to Himbad and Dotmaster whose collaboration works beautifully as Dotmaster’s stencilled children pull back covers to reveal a cutely frightening Himbad monster and host of monster eyes. I really love this piece and would love to see both of these artists make a trip to Bristol. One day maybe.