Leake Street Tunnel
- Nearest Transit:
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Waterloo
Lambeth North
Westminster
- Good for Kids:
- No
3 reviews for Leake Street Tunnel
3 reviews in English
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Review from Tom H.
London
3/4/2010 5 photos
Last week my girlfriend and I were amongst a lucky few to get hold of premier tickets to Banksy's new film 'Exit Through The Gift Shop' which is out in cinemas today. Although we had seen a snippet of a trailer for the film we didn't quite know what to expect, particularly as the screening was in a tunnel underneath Waterloo station in London.
My plans always end up congregating on the same day so we had to rush from the Absolut Vodka screening of "I'm Here" by Spike Jonze to Waterloo station. From here we had no idea where we were heading but followed the smell of spray paint to Leake Street Tunnel.
Leake Street tunnel is a scary place as it's secluded and covered from floor to ceiling in amazing graffiti and street art. It's the kind of place where you should expect to get mugged (of course I didn't because I'm rock hard) but it's also the kind of place to see amazing art work.
So we walked down the tunnel, past graffers painting outlines and street artists lining up stencils, until we got to a small door with a bad mother fucker standing outside. He mumbled a few words to us, we mumbled a few back and we went on in.
Walking through the door we were greeted with a whole range of Banksy pieces from statues and burning Mona Lisa's to moving hot dogs and ice cream vans. We could walk up close and it didn't have the clinical feel of a gallery... because it wasn't.
When the time was right and once we'd bought our drinks and pop corn from the ice cream van we were ushered through a parted velvet curtain into a makeshift cinema by more bad mother fuckers. We took our seats on old leather couches that suitably looked like they'd been pulled from junk yards and the film began.
The film itself was great, but judging from the amount I've written so far I guess I was more impressed by the location, atmosphere and general feel of the place. A narrator took us through the documentary with a masked, and voice changed, but still Bristol accented, Banksy adding bits along the way.
One of the first things we find out is that this film is not actually about Banksy. This threw me at first and I thought it would be shit. Banksy tells us that a film maker tried to make a documentary about him but seeing as the film maker, Theirry Guetta, was so interesting (and highly bizarre), he turned it round to be a film about the film maker.
So we follow round this film maker who is absolutely CRAZY but completely hilarious. It's mostly through point of view shots because Theirry is the one filming it and we learn about his life, his family and his interests. He began to get infatuated with street art from his street artist relative known globally as Space Invader (if you don't know him you might recognise the picture below from Covent Garden, London).
As he filmed more and more of Space Invader doing his work he started to meet more and more influential street artists and gradually became obsessed with Banksy. He saw Banksy as unattainable and impossible to document but eventually they were brought into contact with each other and became friends. That is, until a new self acclaimed street artist called Mr Brain Wash came along and ruined it all.
You'll have to go watch the film to find out more, which you can do today as it has been released in a whole load of cinemas.
I've written a blog post on this with pictures etc here: http://is.gd/9HW3u -
Review from Kat F.
4/26/2009 11 photos
Hands down the most elusive and exciting of all my London adventures!
Of all the suggestions I received from locals about what to visit as a first time tourist, the Leake Street Tunnel/Cans Festival came most highly recommended. It's a Banksy-curated work of art that went up in ~April 2008 and features the work of several dozen British graffiti artists.
If you are visiting and plan on checking it out, make sure you save it till the end once you've become accustomed to the rounded streets and one ways or you'll go mental trying to find this gem. The map says it's "right outside Waterloo Station" but it's not really. And the types of characters hanging out at Waterloo aren't the same ones that'll know who ("what?") Banksy is or have willingly looked at graffiti or art. So prepare to do some serious treasure hunting.
Once you've finally found the entrance to the tunnel, settle in for at least 40 minutes of jawdropping art. It took me so long to walk through this tunnel because there was a lot to look at. Really beautiful colours, great quotes and expressions and political statements. It was neverending. Not one square inch of the tunnel isn't covered. I took heaps of pics (go look at them!).
Not to be missed!Listed in: The Most Random Things I've…, To Do List: London
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Review from Richard D.
2/20/2010
Well worth a visit. It's less than 5 minutes walk from the London Eye. Walk east from the Eye through the plaza. Cross Belvedere Road and continue east along Chicheley Street, which ends a block later at York Street. Cross York Street, jog to the right 20 m then turn left and walk east into the tunnel. Bring a tripod for your camera if you want to take photos.
