London: Graffiti - Art or Crime?

For most people graffiti will be a nuisance, a crime and something which defaces whatever it is applied to. Many cities across the world seem to attract graffiti from those which are modern to those which are historical, they'll be no regard to the surface which is used for graffiti.

Larger towns and cities will see higher amounts of graffiti to suburbs and rural locations. This is mostly due to as we approach city and town centres the scarcity of land comes in to play and more buildings are piled on to tighter plots with many parts of building alongside public walkways / roads. Add to this more dense population and for those doing the graffiti, more eyes on their work.

Is graffiti a crime? In the UK it is a crime and there are fines to pay if you are caught graffitiing or found to have. Most times it will be a caution, there after fines and usually repeat offences can lead to prison. A man from south London has been arrested after over £100,000 in damage to railway property was caused by graffiti.

Usual places to spot graffiti are at bus stops, underground / railway tracks, side passage residential walls, pathways / walkways (ie under roads / roundabouts), commercial buildings, empty buildings, telephone / postal boxes.

Surprisingly graffiti has a strong following with many clubs with members on this form of art. There are many websites dedicated to graffiti as well as books, videos, online tutorials and more.

Some places allow graffiti to take place and will remove and replace designs regularly. Sometimes you will spot very eye catching work by obviously skilled artists, bit unfortunately most times graffiti is poor art, merely names or signatures and can bring down the tone of the area.

Today there are many CCTV cameras about to put off offenders and councils try to clamp down on graffiti such as by removing quickly fresh graffiti.

There are dedicated companies that remove graffiti such as London Graffiti Removal.

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