The Melbourne-Shoreditch Connection

Putting up the green crocodile yesterday reminded me of all the other street art I have seen since arriving here. Having lived in East London for five years it makes me feel right at home and I think it’s one of the main reasons that people often tell me Melbourne is more ‘edgy’ than Sydney. Excitingly, I will be able to test this theory out for myself when we go to Sydney in three weeks time!

Anyway, back to Melbourne and its colourful walls. As with all street art, some is considerably more inspiring than others. It is actually illegal but a building owner can apply for a permit to have their wall painted or if it’s already done, for it to stay. Today’s picture hail from a practise alley in the CBD. This is a small set of laneways that has been given over to street artists so they can develop their ideas. The result is an incredible mixture of ‘tags’, detailed street art and lots of tourists, myself included, taking snaps. Here are some of my favs:

The back of this restaurant is covered in graffiti. Let’s hope none of the paint reaches the food.

These children remind me of a similar artist near Shoreditch station, East London.

If only wise men were this easy to find.

The scale of this wall needs to be seen to be appreciated.

Gary.