Street Art In Leicester, Symbol Of A Vibrant City, Leicester, England

Walk around the city of Leicester and you’ll see that this is a place that is rapidly discovering its tourism potential. It is also a vibrant, diverse and multicultural city. So perhaps it is not surprising to find an abundance of stunning graffiti and street art in Leicester, bringing new life to old buildings.

There has been an active street art scene in Leicester since the 1980s. However, much of what you see today is due to the efforts of Graffwerk, an arts project whose stated aim is in “redefining the visual landscape of cities through the use of street art”. Founded in 2017, Graffwerk brings together artists from around the world to create large and eye-catching murals.

Although they are scattered about the city, the greatest concentration of these artworks is in the St George Cultural Quarter, especially around the Southampton Street area.

Graffwerk’s activity has mostly been focused around the Bring The Paint festivals that took place in 2017, 2019 and 2022. New images were created for these events, sometimes at breathtaking speed: I spoke to someone in a painted garage forecourt who told me he’d watched the main piece going up literally overnight.

The 2022 festival showcased 48 large scale murals as well as activities, events, workshops, music and food. A particular feature this year was the creation of a mural with augmented reality. I downloaded the app and was fascinated to see a moving landscape of cogs and wheels. (The mural was created by German artist Bond, and you can find it on York Street, not far from the multi-storey car park.) ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).