London’s street art has been very much in the pink at the beginning of 2023 – and I mean that very much figuratively, because many of these pieces would never be restricted to just one shade.
For starters, two of the capital’s fabulous murals – by artists Sophie Mess and Mr Cenz – have been nominated for the Street Art Cities’ annual list of the best works around the world. Plus, there’s the exciting arrival of the ‘Beyond The Streets’ exhibition that takes over the entire Saatchi Gallery next month; which is essentially a love letter to street art.
It should, therefore, come as no surprise that London has been handed the crown for best city in Europe to admire the street art, according to a new study.
Luggage experts Radical Storage have crunched the numbers, analysing over 5,000 pieces of work to determine which places have the most street art registered online, and how often they are posted about across social media platforms.
And the results are great reading for lovers of street art in the big smoke. Want even more specificity about the best place in Europe for street art? Fine – it’s Shoreditch. Finishing just above Mitte in Berlin and Lavapiés in Madrid, the popular east London thoroughfare is widely renowned as an art hub, both on the streets and indoors. Radical Storage’s study found it to have the best combination of posts on social media and registered pieces of work.
Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood took all the winnings when it came to social media, though, with TikTok videos in the area receiving an average of 917,000 views. Their total of pieces registered online (77), however, was lower than London’s total of 235.
Taking the crown for best city for street art overall was London, of course; amassing just the 28 million views the pieces on TikTok – making it the most engaged city with street art on social media. Paris was hot on our heels, coming in at second place overall, despite trumping our total of registered pieces online with an impressive total of 544.
Rome, Paris, Berlin… they’re all brilliant cities to visit, and vibrant street art spots according to this study, but there’s one winner this time: London. We concur. Obviously.
Read the study by Radical Storage in full here.