Xtra Diary: Graffiti art debate rages on - Brazen Head pub gets 'Bambi' stencil treatment

Published: 24 June 2011
by JOSH LOEB

THE great graffiti debate is raging in Westminster. 

Last week we reported that a “well-known” public figure had stumped up the cash for a sheet of perspex to protect a Banksy stencil in Fitzrovia from City Hall’s whitewashers.

Now this work (pictured) depicting dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has sprung up on the wall of the Brazen Head pub in Bell Street, Marylebone. Ai was finally released this week after he was snatched by the authorities on his way out of Beijing airport in early May.

Last month an exhibition of his work was staged at Bell Street’s Lisson Gallery – a stone’s throw from the Brazen Head.

The new stencil is thought to be the work of guerilla artist “Bambi” and is close to Loretta’s Cafe, the Bell Street eatery where a stencil of Regent’s Park Road shopkeeper June Beechey appeared earlier this year.

City Hall has a zero tolerance policy on graffiti, but Brazen Head manager Paul Collison (pictured) said it would be safe as his pub was a private building. He added: “I think it’s amazing. 

“I’m a huge fan of Banksy and of street art in general, and I think that it’s great that we have a street artist such as Bambi coming to the area and brightening up the place a bit. It has brought us a lot of attention.”