A mysterious new Banksy mural has appeared in west London just in time for Christmas, sparking both excitement and speculation across the capital.
The artwork, confirmed by the elusive street artist on his official Instagram account on Monday afternoon, shows two children lying on their backs and gazing up at the sky. It sits above a row of garages on Queen’s Mews in Bayswater, its understated location contrasting with the festive energy of the city around it.
But the story doesn’t end there. A second, identical image appeared last Friday outside Centre Point, the landmark tower near Tottenham Court Road. Unlike the Bayswater version, this second mural has not yet been authenticated by Banksy or his representatives though many believe the message is clear enough.
Artist Daniel Lloyd-Morgan, speaking to the BBC, suggested that the Centre Point version carries a deeper social message. “There are a lot of children who are not having a good time at Christmas,” he said. “People walk past homeless people and don’t see them lying on the street – it’s poignant that the kids are looking up, maybe for the north star.”
Centre Point has long been an emblem of London’s housing inequality. Completed in 1966, it famously stood empty for more than a decade before becoming a symbol of the city’s homelessness crisis. The charity Centrepoint, which supports homeless young people, took its name from the building – a nod to what founder Rev Ken Leech once called “an affront to the homeless.” Today, the tower has been transformed into multimillion-pound flats.
Banksy expert Jason Tomkins believes the mural revisits a familiar figure from the artist’s past. He told the BBC he suspects the little boy depicted is the same one seen in Banksy’s 2018 piece in Port Talbot, which showed a child catching snowflakes that turned out to be ashes from a burning bin.
“This is quite unusual for him,” Tomkins said. “He’s never reused one of his figures before. It could indicate that the message he wants to communicate is unresolved – a reminder that nothing has changed.”
While Banksy’s Instagram post confirms his hand behind the Bayswater mural, he has characteristically offered no caption, no explanation, and no comment on the Centre Point version. Yet, in a season defined by both celebration and stark inequality, his work once again invites Londoners to look closer at their surroundings, and at each other.