Kings and Street Artists

9/12/2013 - London

Today, we toured Westminster Abbey, then we did the "Alternative London" tour of the East End's street art, and finally we got drinks and bagels in the evening. Individually, any of these would have made for a good day, but altogether it made for one of those great days that I'm going to have trouble believing all happened in just 24 hours.

Westminster Abbey is the site of, most recently, Elizabeth II's coronation, Princess Diana's funeral, and the royal wedding. It also contains many graves and memorials for London's kings, queens, scientists, and writers. 

I was struck by something in common between our tour of Westminster Abbey and London's street art. A few tombs at the Abbey are decorated with Italian mosaics, but some of the mosaics' tiles were stolen hundreds of years ago by pilgrims looking for a souvenir. As we toured the East End of London's street art later in the day, I was amused to see the same problem: one of the pieces by Invader had some of its tiles removed by his fans.

Pictured: A mosaic by French street artist Invader near the old Truman Brewery in London's East End