Banksy | Street Art Everywhere

18/03/2024
Hornsey Road, Finsbury Park

That’s right folks, 11 hours ago (at the time of writing) Banksy announced his new piece in North London via his official Instagram page. Speculation sparked on Sunday 17th March (also St Paddy’s Day) on Twitter, or ‘X’ if you’re that way inclined, with people living in the area sharing images of the artwork and suspecting it had been done by the anonymous graffiti artist. They did also note they probably wouldn’t be in a rush to move anytime soon, given the extra few thousand this might put on the property…

But anyway, once it was confirmed officially on the Gram that’s when socials went into a bit of meltdown and it soon appeared across the different news and media networks.

Luckily, living in London and working from home today, I was able to take some time out and head on the ‘blue bullet’ aka the Victoria Line and bolt up to Finsbury Park. In true English style for this time of year grey clouds were covering the sky but at least it did not piss it down.

As I exited Finsbury Park station via the Seven Sisters Road side, I saw a few of what looked like people-en-route-to-see-the-new-Banksy. I already knew it was on Hornsey Road from my research this morning and followed my trusty CityMapper directions to the area. The thing is in London, just because you are on Hornsey Road, it doesn’t mean you are in the right place as these streets can go on for fucking miles and miles.

But as I said, generally if there’s a bit of a crowd going in one direction then you can’t go too far wrong following it. I also examined pictures from the Gram with a fine tooth-comb and noticed there was a ‘dentist surgery’ lurking in the background. So a quick Google of Dentist Surgery Hornsey Road and I was able to confirm the exact location.

One thing that amused me as I strolled towards the Banksy was that about 5/10 mins distance before the piece is a police station. The man really doesn’t give a fuck and does it in plain sight. But if they cannot find Kate Middleton then the chances of finding Banksy are even slimmer… anyway.

As you would expect, flocks of people were now arriving as it was in the middle of the day and news had spread far and wide. Major news broadcasters were there, as well as other publications and bloggers, tourists and then the average street art enthusiast like me, as well as locals from the area. It’s an exciting thing to be around as you can sense the energy and buzz from everyone else as well.

With every Banksy, you know there’s some sort of message behind it, which is usually political. I wasn’t too sure what this one might be referencing, however I spoke to a local chap (who was there doing a very nice illustration of the piece) and he said that the council are cutting down a lot of the trees in the area and the particular trees are growing into buildings etc and causing damage or unwanted issues that might lead to bigger problems. So by cutting the trees down the council are hiding behind the problem because there’s deeper roots here (no pun intended!).

If you want to find the Banksy, head for the Dentist Surgery on Hornsey Rd (as noted above) and it’s like 60 secs past that. Overall about a 15-20 mins walk from Finsbury Park Tube Station: