Top 50 UK Street Artists: From Banksy to Emerging Talents

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Street art in the UK is more than just murals and graffiti, it’s a cultural force that has shaped how cities look, feel, and tell their stories. From world-famous names like Banksy and Stik to rising talents painting hidden corners, the British street art scene remains one of the most dynamic and influential in the world.

Long before New York graffiti landed in Europe, London’s countercultures were already leaving their mark on the city’s walls. Punk fans scrawled band names and political slogans across public spaces, setting the stage for what would later become a thriving graffiti and street art movement.

When graffiti from New York arrived in the 1980s, it quickly took root in the UK, where a shared language allowed for a deeper and more immediate connection to hip-hop culture. Over the decades, the country’s raw and rebellious spirit, shaped by music, politics, and underground scenes, gave rise to a distinctive graffiti tradition, while anarchic street art flourished. This energy solidified London and Bristol as leading hubs of European street art.

This strong connection between London street artists and their city is also at the heart of my new book, As Seen on the Streets of London. Through conversations with local artists, the book highlights both celebrated murals and hidden pieces across London’s neighborhoods, capturing the authentic voices behind the art.

In this article, you’ll find a curated list of the Top 50 UK street artists, presented in alphabetical order. From pioneering figures to contemporary innovators, this guide explores the talents shaping the British street art scene today. Whether you’re searching for iconic works or underground gems, these artists show why the UK continues to be one of the world’s most important stages for street art.

Top 50 British Street Artists You Should Know

3D (Robert Del Naja)

Robert Del Naja, better known as 3D, is a pioneering UK graffiti artist from Bristol. Before gaining worldwide fame as a founding member of the band Massive Attack, he was one of the first artists to bring New York–style graffiti to the UK in the early 1980s. His distinctive stencils and hand-painted works stood out on Bristol’s walls, influencing an entire generation of writers and street artists, including Banksy.

3D’s dual legacy in both graffiti and music highlights the deep connection between Bristol’s underground culture, hip-hop, and trip-hop. His early contributions helped shape Bristol into a hub of creativity where visual art and music evolved side by side, making him a key figure in the history of British street art.

Banksy

Banksy is arguably the most famous UK street artist, known worldwide for his provocative stencils that combine dark humor with sharp political commentary. Emerging from the Bristol scene in the 1990s, his works have appeared on walls across London, Bristol, and beyond. 

Because of his global fame and appeal well beyond the street art community, every new work by Banksy becomes a media event. I witnessed this first-hand in London last summer, when his London Zoo pieces sparked massive attention and public debate. That experience led me to reflect more deeply on questions of ownership in street art and the domino effect Banksy’s interventions inevitably trigger, on the art market, on the streets, and in public discourse.

Ben Eine

Ben Eine is one of the most distinctive UK street artists, celebrated for his innovative approach to lettering. Moving from traditional graffiti into a focus on typography, Eine developed a signature style built around bold, oversized letters painted in striking color combinations.

Rather than using text for direct messages, his work elevates the form of the letters themselves, treating them as visual objects that transform walls into graphic statements. Over time, Eine has created entire alphabets across the city, each series experimenting with new fonts and design variations. His typographic murals highlight the intersection of graffiti, design, and contemporary art, placing him among the most influential figures in British street art.

Best Ever

Best Ever is the artistic duo formed by Neil Edward and Hadley Newman, who both came from graffiti backgrounds before moving into large-scale photorealism. Active for over 15 years, they developed a distinctive style that combines hyper-realistic portraiture with anatomical details, exploring themes of life, fragility, and decay.

Neil first made a name for himself with the 54 crew, producing commercial photorealistic pieces, before meeting Hadley in Bournemouth. Discovering that they shared similar ideas, the two decided to collaborate. Their creative process is highly organic: Hadley often begins with loose lines, angles, and splashes of paint, after which both artists work interchangeably on different sections of the mural, blurring individual authorship.

Bill Posters

Bill Posters is a UK-based street artist and activist best known for his work in subvertising, the practice of hijacking advertising spaces to challenge consumerism, surveillance, and political propaganda. His interventions transform billboards, bus stops, and other commercial sites into platforms for critical messages, disrupting the visual language of corporate advertising.

Rooted in a background of art and activism, Bill Posters often collaborates with collectives such as Brandalism, staging coordinated campaigns that replace hundreds of outdoor ads overnight. These actions not only question the role of advertising in public space but also reframe the streets as arenas for free expression.

By merging street art with activism, Bill Posters has become one of the leading voices in British street art pushing the boundaries of what urban interventions can achieve, reminding us that public space is a contested and political arena.

Bortusk Leer

Bortusk Leer is a UK street artist celebrated for his playful and chaotic style, which brings bursts of color and childlike energy to the streets. Inspired by children’s drawings, his work features monsters, doodles, and cartoon-like figures painted in bold lines and neon shades.

Starting out in London in the mid-2000s, Bortusk Leer began pasting his brightly colored characters on walls, shutters, and abandoned spaces, creating a visual antidote to the greyness of the urban environment. His art embraces spontaneity and humor, often looking deliberately messy and anarchic, yet carrying a strong message about joy, imagination, and freedom.

By rejecting polished aesthetics and instead channeling the creativity of a child’s perspective, Bortusk Leer has carved out a distinctive place in the British street art scene, proving that not all interventions need to be political or monumental…sometimes, street art can simply be about spreading happiness.

Carrie Reichardt

Carrie Reichardt is a London-based UK street artist and mosaicist whose work blends craft, activism, and social commentary. Known for her intricate ceramic mosaics, she covers walls, facades, and even vehicles with hand-crafted tiles, often embedding slogans, political references, and historical imagery.

In London’s neighborhood of Chiswick, she created the Mosaic House, covering her entire home with tiles to form a radical and visually striking artwork. This masterpiece combines colorful patterns with political slogans and imagery, turning a domestic space into a bold statement on freedom, resistance, and creativity. In my book As Seen on the Streets of London, Carrie shares the making-of story of this massive public art project:

Alongside this, Reichardt founded The Treatment Rooms Collective, collaborating with artists and activists worldwide on mosaic-based projects. By reclaiming a traditional craft and infusing it with urgent social messages, she has established herself as one of the most influential voices in British street art, proving that even the most traditional techniques can be radical tools for activism in public space.

• Read my interview with Carrie Reichardt (Nuart 2018): Meet craftivist Carrie Reichardt

D*Face

D*Face is a leading UK street artist whose pop-influenced style draws on punk aesthetics, comic books, and advertising culture. His works often feature reimagined icons—such as celebrities, superheroes, and pop art figures—distorted with skulls, wings, or glitch-like effects to critique consumerism, fame, and the superficiality of modern life.

Active since the late 1990s, D*Face was part of London’s early street art boom and has left a lasting mark on the city with large-scale murals, stickers, and posters. Beyond the streets, he founded StolenSpace Gallery, one of London’s key hubs for urban contemporary art, and has collaborated with brands, musicians, and festivals worldwide.

By combining rebellious energy with a polished graphic language, D*Face bridges the gap between underground street culture and the mainstream art world, solidifying his status as one of the most influential names in British street art.

Dale Grimshaw

Dale Grimshaw is a UK street artist celebrated for his powerful, large-scale murals that combine figurative realism with expressive brushwork. His portraits often depict Indigenous people from Papua New Guinea and West Papua, painted in vivid detail and set against dynamic, abstract backgrounds.

Through his art, Grimshaw addresses themes of identity, colonial history, and human rights, giving visibility to marginalized communities and sparking conversations in public space. His murals can be seen in London as well as in cities across Europe, where their intensity and scale create an immediate impact.

By merging political urgency with painterly skill, Dale Grimshaw has established himself as one of the most respected voices in British street art, using walls not just as canvases but as platforms for cultural resistance and solidarity.

Dan Kitchener

Dan Kitchener, also known as DANK, is a UK street artist famous for his large-scale murals of neon-lit cityscapes, rain-soaked streets, and blurred figures. His style, often described as cinematic, captures the energy of bustling metropolises—Tokyo, Hong Kong, and London—translating the play of light, reflection, and movement directly onto urban walls.

Kitchener’s process is rooted in speed and spontaneity: many of his works are created freehand with spray paint, without preparatory sketches, giving his murals a raw and dynamic quality. By focusing on atmosphere rather than precise detail, he creates immersive scenes that transport viewers into dreamlike versions of familiar city environments.

With murals scattered across the UK and abroad, Dan Kitchener has become one of the most recognizable names in British street art, celebrated for turning gray walls into glowing urban landscapes.

David Walker

David Walker is a UK street artist best known for his large-scale portraits painted entirely with spray paint, without the aid of brushes or stencils. His distinctive style is defined by layers of vibrant colors, abstract shapes, and expressive strokes that come together to form strikingly realistic faces.

Walker’s approach challenges traditional notions of portraiture, merging fine art and graffiti techniques to create works that feel both raw and refined. His murals can be found across London and in cities worldwide, instantly recognizable for their intense use of color and emotional depth.

By pushing the boundaries of spray paint as a medium, David Walker has earned a prominent place in the British street art scene, showing how technical skill and experimentation can transform walls into powerful, large-scale works of art.

Dr. D (a.k.a Subvertiser)

Dr. D, also known as the Subvertiser, is a UK street artist whose work hijacks the language of advertising to deliver biting social and political commentary. By reworking billboards, road signs, posters, and corporate slogans, he exposes the manipulation behind commercial media and reframes public space as a site for critique rather than consumption.

His satirical interventions often parody government messages, brand campaigns, and tabloid headlines, replacing them with sharp humor and irony. Seen across London and other UK cities, Dr. D’s works play with familiarity, using the visual codes of mainstream advertising, only to twist them into subversive statements that challenge authority and consumer culture.

Through this practice, Dr. D has become one of the most prominent voices in British street art advocating for the streets as arenas of free speech, resistance, and cultural debate.

Dotmaster

Dotmaster is a UK street artist known for his sharp stencil work and biting sense of humor. Mixing photorealistic precision with satirical twists, his pieces often highlight the absurdity of consumer culture, social inequality, and everyday life.

Emerging from London’s street art scene in the 1990s, he has built a reputation for subversive images that combine a polished, almost advertising-like aesthetic with disruptive content. His series Rude Kids, featuring children engaged in rebellious or mischievous acts, has become particularly well known, appearing both on the streets and in galleries.

By fusing technical skill with irony, Dotmaster continues to challenge perceptions of public space and visual culture, making him a distinctive and enduring presence in British street art.

Eloise Gillow

Eloise Gillow is a UK street artist and painter whose large-scale murals combine figurative realism with poetic, socially engaged themes. Trained in fine art, she brings a painterly sensitivity to the streets, often portraying human figures in moments of reflection, resilience, or quiet strength.

Her works frequently explore issues of migration, community, and belonging, offering a counterpoint to the fast and chaotic rhythm of urban life. Executed with meticulous brushwork and soft tonal palettes, her murals stand out for their depth and intimacy, inviting viewers to pause and reflect.

By merging classical techniques with contemporary social concerns, Eloise Gillow has become an emerging force in British street art, contributing to a new wave of artists who see the street not just as a canvas, but as a place for dialogue and empathy.

Fanakapan

Fanakapan is a self-taught UK street artist celebrated for his hyper-realistic, 3D-style murals that depict reflective, metallic balloons. Painted with spray paint alone, his works capture light, shadow, and surface reflections so convincingly that they appear to float off the wall.

Emerging from London’s underground graffiti scene, Fanakapan developed a unique visual language that quickly set him apart. His balloon letters, skulls, and playful objects often carry subtle social commentary while maintaining a sense of humor and accessibility. By transforming everyday objects into monumental illusions, Fanakapan has secured a distinctive place in British street art, bridging technical mastery with a playful, instantly recognizable style.

Guy Denning

Guy Denning is a UK street artist and painter known for his raw, expressive style that merges classical drawing techniques with the immediacy of street art. Working with charcoal, oil, and spray paint, he creates powerful portraits marked by visible brushstrokes, drips, and fragmented text.

Denning often tackles political and social themes, through imagery that feels both intimate and universal. His murals and paste-ups, seen in cities across the UK and Europe, are emotionally charged, reflecting a concern with human vulnerability and resilience.

By combining fine art sensibilities with a street-based practice, Guy Denning has become a respected figure in British street art, bringing depth, emotion, and a painterly edge to walls that might otherwise be overlooked.

Helen Bur

Helen Bur is a UK street artist and painter whose work moves between monumental murals and delicate interventions in public space. My favorite part of her practice are the tiny figures she paints—always from behind, and always portraying locals from the community that hosted her while she worked. Placed at ground level or in hidden corners, they create intimate encounters that reward those who slow down and look closely.

Alongside these small interventions, Helen Bur is also known for her large figurative murals, which depict everyday gestures with painterly sensitivity—tying shoelaces, carrying objects, or pausing in thought. Her brushwork remains loose yet precise, combining immediacy with emotional depth.

By balancing monumental murals with these subtle portraits of locals, Helen Bur transforms street art into a collaborative and human-centered practice, making her one of the most distinctive voices in British street art.

• Read my interview: “Catching up with Helen Bur at Nuart Aberdeen 2019”

Hush

HUSH is a UK street artist whose work blends graffiti techniques with influences from Eastern art, particularly Japanese woodblock prints and geisha imagery. His murals and canvases are layered with tags, drips, and abstract marks, over which he paints delicate female figures—creating a striking tension between chaos and control, street and studio, tradition and modernity.

Emerging in the mid-2000s, HUSH developed a style that reflects the global nature of contemporary street art, drawing on multiple visual languages at once. His murals, seen in cities across the UK and abroad, are instantly recognizable for their textured surfaces and vibrant contrasts.

By combining the raw energy of graffiti with refined, figurative portraiture, HUSH has carved out a unique place in British street art, bridging underground culture and fine art in a way that feels both international and unmistakably his own.

Hutch

Hutch is a UK street artist from Brighton whose roots lie in punk culture. Inspired as a teenager by the DIY spirit of bands like Crass, with their stencil-based record covers and collaged imagery, he began making his own clothes, painting leather jackets, and designing artwork for band posters, record sleeves, and backdrops. This background naturally led him into stencil and street art, where the same ethos of independence and “no rules” continues to drive his practice.

Today, Hutch creates his work through a mix of hand-pulled screen prints, stencils, illustrations, and T-shirts, always maintaining a raw, self-made aesthetic. His pieces reflect the rebellious energy of punk while engaging with the immediacy of street art, turning walls and objects into canvases for expression.

With his sharp, graphic style and unwavering DIY attitude, Hutch carries forward the legacy of punk into the language of British street art.

Inkie

Inkie is a pioneering UK street artist from Bristol, widely recognized as one of the key figures in the development of British graffiti and street art. Emerging in the 1980s as part of the Bristol street art scene, he was among the first wave of writers influenced by New York graffiti, and became a central player in the city’s underground movement that later produced artists like Banksy.

His style blends traditional graffiti lettering with influences from Art Nouveau, Mayan patterns, and calligraphy, creating richly decorative works that stand out for their complexity and elegance. Over the years, Inkie has moved fluidly between the streets, commercial projects, and gallery exhibitions, all while staying true to the roots of graffiti culture.

By combining technical mastery with a pioneering role in Bristol’s creative explosion, Inkie has secured his place as one of the most influential names in British street art, bridging the early graffiti era and today’s urban contemporary scene.

Irony

Working primarily with spray paint, Irony creates large-scale portraits of animals and humans, rendered with striking detail and depth.

True to his name, Irony frequently injects humor into his work, whether through surreal juxtapositions, exaggerated scale, or unexpected subjects appearing in the middle of the urban landscape. His murals can be seen in London and across the UK, where they often stop passersby with their lifelike quality and visual wit.

By merging photorealistic skill with a sharp sense of humor, Irony has become a distinctive presence in British street art, demonstrating how technical mastery can serve both beauty and satire on the streets.

James Klinge

James Klinge is a UK street artist from Glasgow, Scotland, best known for his intricate stencil work. Moving away from the flat, graphic look usually associated with stencils, he developed a layered technique that gives his portraits a painterly, almost brushstroke-like quality. The result is strikingly detailed imagery that blurs the line between stencil art and fine painting.

Klinge is closely connected to the Glasgow street art scene, where his murals have become landmarks and where his innovative approach continues to influence a new generation of Scottish artists. His work often focuses on human faces, exploring emotion and vulnerability through fragmented forms and subtle shifts in tone.

Jamie Reid

Jamie Reid was a UK artist and activist whose graphic work defined the visual identity of the punk movement in the 1970s. Best known for designing record sleeves and posters for the Sex Pistols, including the iconic God Save the Queen cover, Reid used collage, ransom-note typography, and appropriated imagery to attack authority and consumer culture.

Although not a graffiti writer in the traditional sense, his DIY spirit, cut-and-paste aesthetics, and subversive use of mass-media visuals paved the way for future generations of British street artists. His work blurred the boundaries between art, design, and political protest, embodying the same anti-establishment energy that continues to animate UK street art today.

Through his influence on punk graphics and visual activism, Jamie Reid remains a crucial reference point in the history of British street art, showing how images in public space can challenge power and inspire resistance.

Jim Vision

Jim Vision is a UK street artist and muralist strongly associated with London’s Shoreditch, where many of his large-scale works have become local landmarks. His style mixes fantasy, science fiction, and urban culture, often featuring apocalyptic landscapes, mythological figures, or surreal dreamscapes painted with bold colors and intricate detail.

He is also the co-founder of End of the Line, a production company and collective that has curated and delivered some of London’s most ambitious street art and graffiti projects. Through this platform, Jim Vision has collaborated with both local and international artists, helping to transform public walls into shared canvases and organizing landmark events in the UK scene.

Jim Vision is also one of the artists who spoke with me about his favorite spots in London and his connection to his town:

Jonesy

Jonesy is a UK street artist based in London, known for his small but powerful sculptural interventions in public space. Instead of large-scale murals, he places hand-carved figures, painted busts, and miniature bronze or wooden statues on top of lampposts, signs, and other urban fixtures. These works, often easy to miss at first glance, reward those who slow down and look closely.

Many of Jonesy’s pieces carry an environmental message, addressing themes such as climate change, extinction, and humanity’s destructive relationship with nature. His figures—half-human, half-animal hybrids, or mythical creatures—become quiet guardians of the city, turning overlooked corners into sites of reflection.

By bringing sculpture into the streets and combining craft with activism, Jonesy has carved out a unique position in British street art, proving that even the smallest interventions can have a profound impact on how we experience the city.

Kid Acne

Kid Acne is a UK street artist and illustrator whose bold, hand-drawn lettering has become a familiar sight on walls across Britain and beyond. Emerging from the Sheffield graffiti scene in the 1990s, he developed a distinctive visual language rooted in DIY culture, comics, and hip-hop.

Best known for his slogan-based works (short, punchy phrases painted in his unmistakable style) Kid Acne uses words as both image and message, turning simple statements into large-scale declarations in public space.

KMG

KMG (Katie Guthrie) is a UK street artist and illustrator from Aberdeen, Scotland. Her bold, character-based style features mischievous, cartoon-like figures drawn in crisp lines and limited palettes, often mixing humor with subtle reflections on identity, consumerism, and social behavior.

I first met KMG in Aberdeen during Nuart Festival, where she was running a workshop that perfectly embodied her playful, hands-on approach. The following year she returned to the festival to paint a mural, marking her presence in her hometown’s growing street art scene.

By pairing humor with sharp graphic design, KMG has established herself as one of the most distinctive Scottish voices in British street art, transforming walls into stages for characters that are both entertaining and thought-provoking.

LUAP

LUAP (Paul Robinson) is a UK street artist and painter best known for his recurring motif, the Pink Bear. This surreal character, dressed in a bright pink bear suit, appears in murals, photographs, and mixed-media works that blur the line between fantasy and reality.

The Pink Bear serves as a symbol of childhood innocence and escapism, but also of vulnerability and mental health awareness—central themes in LUAP’s practice. His works often place the bear in striking natural or urban landscapes, creating a contrast between playful imagery and deeper emotional narratives.

By combining street art, fine art, and photography, LUAP has developed a distinctive visual language that resonates widely. His Pink Bear has become an iconic figure in British street art, inviting viewers to reflect on identity, wellbeing, and the need for imagination in everyday life.

Lucy McLauchlan

Lucy McLauchlan is a UK street artist celebrated for her large-scale, monochrome murals characterized by flowing, organic lines and abstract forms. Her work often covers entire building facades, wrapping surfaces with rhythmic patterns that evoke nature, movement, and transformation.

Emerging from Birmingham’s art scene, McLauchlan became a prominent voice in the UK’s street art movement during the 2000s. Her practice spans walls, installations, and gallery work, yet always maintains the fluid, improvisational quality that defines her style.

By bringing a sense of harmony and abstraction to urban spaces, Lucy McLauchlan has established herself as one of the most distinctive figures in British street art, showing how non-figurative forms can carry as much power and emotion as representational murals.

• Read also: Lucy McLauchlan in Rome for Forgotten Project.

Merny Wernz

Merny is a UK street artist known for his interventions that turn city walls into places of reflection and encouragement. His works often address themes of self-care, mental health, and kindness, ranging from uplifting reminders to vulnerable confessions, stand out for their honesty and directness.

By using everyday language rather than slogans, Merny’s art feels approachable and personal, resonating with passersby who stumble upon his words in unexpected corners of the city.

Through this blend of simplicity and sincerity, Merny has carved a space for himself in British street art, showing how even the most minimal interventions can transform the mood of urban environments.

Mobstr

Mobstr is a UK street artist celebrated for his minimalist, text-based works that use wit, irony, and subtle provocation to challenge the viewer. His interventions often consist of short phrases or single words placed strategically in the urban landscape, transforming ordinary walls and billboards into platforms for dry humor and social critique.

A hallmark of his style is the ongoing “conversations” he creates with the city—adding, erasing, or altering text over time so that his works evolve like dialogues between the artist, the authorities, and the public. This playful interaction highlights the ephemeral nature of street art while questioning control, censorship, and authorship in public space.

By turning language into both artwork and commentary, Mobstr has become a distinctive voice in British street art, proving that simplicity and sharp wit can be just as powerful as large-scale murals.

Mode 2

Mode 2 is a pioneering UK graffiti artist who emerged in the early 1980s as part of the first generation to bring New York–inspired writing into Europe. Born in Mauritius and raised in London, he quickly became one of the most influential figures in the UK hip-hop scene, active not only as a graffiti writer but also as a breakdancer and illustrator.

Deeply immersed in all four elements of hip-hop (MCing, DJing, breaking, and writing) Mode 2 helped shape the cultural foundations of the movement in London. His graffiti stood out for its fluid letterforms and the addition of dynamic human figures, injecting storytelling and rhythm into walls that had been dominated by pure lettering.

As a founding member of the graffiti crew The Chrome Angelz, he left a lasting mark on the British street art and graffiti scene, inspiring generations of writers and proving that graffiti was not just vandalism but a vital expression of youth culture and identity.

Moose

Moose is a UK street artist credited as the pioneer of reverse graffiti, a technique that creates images by cleaning dirt and pollution off urban surfaces rather than applying paint. Using stencils, rags, and pressure washers, he transforms soot-covered walls, tunnels, and underpasses into canvases where light and clean surfaces become the artwork itself.

Emerging in Leeds in the late 1990s, Moose challenged conventional ideas of graffiti by creating art that was technically “cleaning” rather than vandalism, sparking debates about legality, ownership, and the use of public space. His environmentally conscious practice also raises awareness about pollution and the grime that covers city surfaces, turning the act of cleaning into both activism and artistic expression.

Through his inventive approach, Moose has carved out a unique position in British street art, proving that sometimes erasing, rather than adding, can be the most radical artistic gesture.

Mr. Cenz

Mr Cenz is a UK street artist renowned for his futuristic, psychedelic portraits of women painted in vivid color palettes. Working primarily with spray paint, he layers abstract shapes, cosmic patterns, and neon tones over realistic facial features, creating murals that feel both otherworldly and deeply human.

Active since the late 1980s, when he first began painting graffiti, Mr Cenz has evolved his style from traditional lettering into a unique form of portraiture that blends street art with sci-fi aesthetics. His works can be found across London—particularly in Shoreditch and South London—as well as in cities worldwide, where their glowing, dreamlike quality makes them instantly recognizable.

By merging technical precision with a bold, imaginative vision, Mr Cenz has become a leading figure in British street art, showing how graffiti roots can evolve into a highly distinctive, contemporary visual language.

Mr. Doodle

Mr Doodle (Sam Cox) is a UK street artist whose instantly recognizable style covers every surface with dense, interconnected doodles. Using bold black lines on white backgrounds—or sometimes entire explosions of color—he fills walls, rooms, and even buildings with a seemingly endless stream of characters, objects, and abstract forms.

Starting out with sketchbooks and small interventions, Mr Doodle quickly gained attention for the obsessive, all-over nature of his work, which has since expanded into large-scale murals, gallery shows, and even the transformation of his own home into the Doodle House. His playful universe also went viral on Instagram and other social media platforms, where time-lapse videos of him covering vast surfaces in doodles reached millions of viewers and propelled him into global fame.

By turning doodling into a monumental practice, Mr Doodle has become one of the most internationally famous names in British street art, showing how a simple, universal language of lines can connect with viewers across cultures and generations.

My Dog Sighs

My Dog Sighs is a UK street artist from Portsmouth, best known for his haunting murals of hyper-realistic eyes that tell stories through the reflections within the iris. These giant, soulful eyes often contain miniature scenes—landscapes, figures, or symbolic details—that transform a simple gaze into a narrative. Alongside these murals, he is also known for painting on discarded objects such as crushed cans, turning throwaway materials into intimate works of art.

He is also the creator of Free Art Friday, a global movement that encourages artists to leave small works in public spaces for people to find and keep, turning the act of discovery into a shared experience. This initiative reflects his long-standing belief in accessibility, generosity, and the value of connecting people through art.

Deeply connected to Portsmouth, he has been instrumental in shaping the city’s identity as a street art destination, not least through his involvement in the Look Up street art festival. His landmark project Inside, staged in an abandoned building in Portsmouth, invited visitors into an immersive world built on empathy, imagination, and storytelling.

By merging delicacy with technical precision, My Dog Sighs has become one of the most distinctive voices in British street art, offering moments of quiet reflection and human connection in the middle of the urban landscape.

Nathan Bowen

Nathan Bowen is a UK street artist from London, instantly recognizable for his sketchy, hand-drawn characters that appear on construction boards, shutters, and walls across the city. Often dressed as mischievous builders, soldiers, or fantastical creatures, his figures are drawn with quick, jagged lines that preserve the raw energy of a sketchbook brought directly into the street.

Emerging in the late 2000s, Nathan Bowen made construction hoardings his canvas of choice, using them to bring humor and personality into otherwise bland urban spaces. His characters have since become a familiar sight in central London, particularly around Soho and Shoreditch, adding a touch of chaos and playfulness to the cityscape.

By transforming overlooked corners with his instantly recognizable figures, Nathan Bowen has secured a distinctive place in British street art, keeping alive the spontaneous, street-level spirit of drawing in public space.

Nick Walker

Nick Walker is a pioneering UK street artist from Bristol, known for his intricate stencil work that helped define the early aesthetic of British street art. Emerging in the 1980s, he combined the energy of the graffiti movement with the precision of stencils, creating works that stood out for their detail and sophistication.

His signature character, The Vandal, often depicted in a bowler hat and suit, appears in playful, mischievous scenes that critique authority and consumer culture while celebrating the rebellious spirit of graffiti. This figure has become an enduring symbol of Walker’s practice, bridging satire, elegance, and subversion.

As part of the Bristol street art scene, Nick Walker paved the way for a new generation of stencil artists, including Banksy, who has often cited him as an influence.

Nomad Clan

Nomad Clan is the internationally acclaimed UK street art duo of Cbloxx (Joy Gilleard) and AYLO (Hayley Garner), known for their monumental murals that weave together history, folklore, and contemporary social commentary. Their works, often spanning entire building facades, combine painterly realism with symbolic storytelling, transforming post-industrial walls into striking visual landmarks.

While they collaborate under the Nomad Clan name, both artists have also built strong solo careers. Cbloxx is celebrated for her emotive figurative murals, often exploring themes of identity, mythology, and resilience through expressive, painterly portraits. AYLO, on the other hand, brings a distinctive voice rooted in atmosphere and symbolism, creating works that blend historical references with layered allegories.

Together and individually, Nomad Clan have become powerful voices in British street art, demonstrating how murals can act as both monumental artworks and meaningful reflections of place.

Paul Insect

Paul Insect is a UK street artist and contemporary artist whose bold, graphic style often mixes pop culture, surrealism, and sharp social critique. Emerging from London’s underground scene in the 1990s, he became known for his vibrant use of color, collaged imagery, and recurring motifs such as faceless figures with hollow eyes.

Paul Insect’s work moves fluidly between the streets and the gallery, but always retains its raw, subversive energy. His pieces often confront consumerism, politics, and media culture, transforming familiar icons into unsettling, dreamlike images.

By combining street aesthetics with contemporary art sensibilities, Paul Insect has secured a distinctive place in British street art, bridging the rebellious energy of graffiti with the experimental freedom of fine art.

Perspicere

Perspicere is a London-based UK street artist known for creating intricate portraits and geometric forms using nothing but thread. Instead of paint or spray cans, he stretches colored string across nails hammered into wooden panels or directly into walls, producing images that emerge from hundreds of delicate, overlapping lines.

His thread portraits often depict faces dissolving into abstraction, reflecting on themes of fragility, identity, and the interconnectedness of people. Installed both outdoors and in galleries, these works combine the ephemerality of street art with the meticulous craftsmanship of textile art, offering a rare tactile dimension in urban interventions.

By replacing spray paint with spools of thread, Perspicere has developed a truly original voice within British street art, expanding the definition of what materials and techniques can be used to transform public space.

Phlegm

Phlegm is a UK street artist and illustrator originally from Sheffield, best known for his fantastical, black-and-white murals populated by mysterious characters. His long, slender figures—half-human, half-creature—inhabit surreal worlds filled with flying machines, mythical beasts, and strange architectures, creating a visual universe that feels like stepping into a modern fable.

Starting out as a comic book artist, Phlegm carried his illustrative style into the streets, where his detailed linework and imaginative storytelling quickly set him apart. His murals often sprawl across entire building facades, transforming derelict spaces into portals to other realms, while still remaining accessible and playful.

In 2019, he created The Mausoleum of the Giants in his hometown of Sheffield, an immersive installation featuring monumental sculptures of his characters. The exhibition drew international attention, confirming his status as one of the most imaginative and original voices in contemporary urban art.

By bringing narrative illustration into public walls and large-scale installations, Phlegm has become one of the most distinctive names in British street art, showing how fantasy and storytelling can re-enchant even the most neglected corners of the city.

Robert Montgomery

Robert Montgomery is a UK street artist and poet known for bringing language into public space through large-scale text works. His practice often takes the form of billboards, light installations, and posters featuring poetic statements that are both intimate and political. By placing these interventions in city streets, he transforms the language of advertising into moments of reflection and critique.

Influenced by the Situationist movement and the tradition of conceptual art, Montgomery uses text as a way to disrupt everyday life and reclaim public attention from commercial messages. His words explore themes such as love, loss, consumerism, and climate change, offering a lyrical counterpoint to the noise of contemporary cities.

By merging poetry, activism, and visual art, Robert Montgomery has become one of the most distinctive voices in British street art, showing how language itself can function as a radical and contemplative medium in the urban landscape.

Remi Rough

Remi Rough is a UK street artist from London whose work pushes graffiti into the realm of geometric abstraction. Emerging in the 1980s as part of the capital’s graffiti scene, he moved from traditional lettering to a language of sharp lines, angular shapes, and bold blocks of color. His murals often recall Constructivism and Abstract Expressionism, yet remain firmly rooted in the energy of graffiti.

Working on walls, canvases, and even large-scale public installations, Rough transforms urban spaces with compositions that feel both architectural and dynamic. His palette—minimal yet striking—creates powerful contrasts that give movement and rhythm to flat surfaces.

By evolving graffiti into pure abstraction, Remi Rough has become a pioneering figure in British street art, showing how the visual language of the streets can intersect with modernist traditions and contemporary design.

SHOK-1

SHOK-1 is a UK street artist best known for his distinctive “X-ray” style, painting skeletal forms, bones, and radiographic imagery entirely freehand with spray paint. His murals, often monochromatic with subtle gradients, resemble medical scans but are infused with artistic symbolism, exploring fragility, mortality, and the hidden structures beneath the surface.

Active since the 1980s, SHOK-1 has evolved from graffiti lettering into a highly original visual language that bridges science, anatomy, and art.

By transforming the aesthetics of graffiti into a refined and instantly recognizable style, SHOK-1 has established himself as one of the most innovative figures in British street art, proving that spray paint can achieve the subtlety and depth of traditional painting.

Sickboy

Sickboy is a UK street artist from Bristol, recognized for his bright colors and cartoon-inspired style. Emerging from the city’s graffiti scene in the late 1990s, he quickly stood out for moving beyond lettering and embracing bold, playful imagery that combined street art with pop sensibilities.

His “temple” symbol, painted thousands of times across walls, bins, and rooftops, became a kind of personal brand—one of the first examples of logo-driven street art in the UK. Alongside this, Sickboy’s murals and installations often explore themes of spirituality, consumerism, and modern iconography, presented through a mix of humor and critique.

As part of the Bristol street art scene, Sickboy helped shape the evolution of graffiti into broader visual storytelling. His work remains a key reference point in British street art, bridging underground rebellion and contemporary urban aesthetics.

Silent Bill

Silent Bill is a UK street artist known for his witty interventions that use humor and satire to critique politics, consumerism, and the art world itself. Often working with stencils, stickers, and slogans, he leaves short, punchy statements in public space, messages that are both thought-provoking and mischievous.

He is also a founding member of the Secret Society of Super Villain Artists, a loose collective of artists who collaborate on subversive projects and interventions. Through this platform, Silent Bill has taken part in coordinated actions that challenge authority and push the boundaries of what street art can be.

• Read also: “The Story of Silent Bill, founder of the Secret Society of Super Villain Artists“

By combining sharp humor with collective activism, Silent Bill has carved out a space in British street art as a voice of dissent and irony, reminding us that even the smallest interventions can disrupt the urban narrative.

Snik

SNIK is a UK street art duo celebrated for their mastery of hand-cut, multi-layered stencils that produce hyper-detailed, painterly murals. Working together since the early 2000s, the pair create large-scale portraits, often of women, captured in moments of movement, with flowing hair and drapery that suggest both fragility and strength.

Their process is highly meticulous: each mural requires dozens of carefully cut stencil layers, painted one over another to achieve depth, texture, and photorealistic detail. The results feel closer to fine art paintings than traditional stencil graffiti, yet retain the raw energy of the street.

With works spread across the UK and internationally, SNIK have secured a place as innovators in British street art, elevating stencil techniques to new levels of complexity and emotional resonance.

Stik

Stik is a UK street artist from London, best known for his minimalist stick-figure characters painted with just a few bold lines and dots for eyes. Despite their simplicity, his figures convey powerful emotions and universal themes—loneliness, solidarity, love, and protest—making them accessible to a broad audience.

Active since the early 2000s, Stik began painting in East London, especially in Shoreditch and Hackney, where many of his early works can still be found. His murals often reflect the communities in which they are created, and he frequently collaborates with local residents to ensure his art resonates with the neighborhood.

Beyond the walls, Stik has been deeply engaged in charity projects and community work, with his prints and artworks sold at auction to raise significant funds for housing projects, hospitals, and social causes. This commitment has strengthened his bond with local communities and expanded the impact of his art beyond visual storytelling.

By turning simplicity into strength, Stik has become one of the most beloved names in British street art, showing how even the most basic visual language can carry depth, empathy, and social meaning.

Sweet Toof

Sweet Toof is a UK street artist instantly recognizable for his recurring motif of grinning teeth and pink gums, which he paints across rooftops, shutters, and walls. His toothy characters range from playful cartoon skulls to more macabre figures, combining humor with a memento mori sensibility.

Emerging from the British graffiti scene in the 1990s, Sweet Toof developed a style that is both grotesque and joyful, influenced by comic books, classical painting, and urban decay. His teeth motifs often appear in unexpected places, turning the city into a giant grin while also hinting at deeper themes of mortality and the absurdity of life.

From the early graffiti pioneers to today’s muralists and experimental creators, these 50 UK street artists illustrate the variety and strength of the movement. While many are rooted in London’s street art scene, others carry the spirit of British urban creativity to Bristol, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Manchester, and far beyond, shaping the identity of entire communities along the way.

• Read also: Top 50 French Street Artists You Need to Know

If you’d like to go deeper, my new book As Seen on the Streets of London offers a more intimate perspective: through in-depth interviews, London artists share their personal relationship with the city, revealing the neighborhoods, hidden corners, and everyday places that have inspired their work. It’s not just a guide to murals—it’s a map of the city as seen through the eyes of its artists.