“If graffiti changed anything – it would be illegal”, - New Bansky-style work appears in Clipstone Street, Fitzrovia

Published: 28 April 2011
by PAVAN AMARA

A PIECE of graffiti art suspected of being the work of Banksy appeared in Fitzrovia in the early hours of Monday morning.

The blood-red stencil which reads, “If graffiti changed anything – it would be illegal”, was drawn at the end of a row of shops on the corner of Clipstone Street, next to the BT Tower.

Security guard Raymond Hill, 37, who works nearby, said: “It wasn’t there on Sunday night, and then it was there when I started my shift at 6am on Monday morning. There’s a petrol station right round the corner and the area’s always pretty busy, so I’m surprised no one noticed him doing it.”

Camden has been a happy hunting ground for the guerilla artist, whose work has appeared twice in Camden Town. One of his trademark rats has been protected by perspex on the side of the Town Hall building in King’s Cross.

It is the second largest work believed to have been created by Banksy to have appeared in Fitzrovia.

Onlookers suggested the latest piece may have been motivated by an old anarchist slogan coined by late Russian-Canadian political activist Emma Goldman: “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.”