News / Street Art
Where are Bristol’s legal walls?
Flowing like a stream through Bristol’s underpasses, alleyways and streets is a constant influx of artworks. Some are commissioned and adorn the sidewalls of buildings proudly. Others are more secretive, tucked away inside a tunnel or a skate park. Either way, the city’s street art is one of its defining features – a statement of resistance, a form of expression and, for some, vandalism.
However, for a city that’s the birthplace of Banksy, and has had a strong reputation for producing outstanding graffiti and street art for decades, it is necessary, but seems somewhat counterintuitive, to ask: where are Bristol’s legal walls?
For the unversed, legal walls are public spaces where graffiti is allowed by any member of the public. Many cities in the UK have them, including Aberdeen, Cheltenham and Glasgow. However, despite the presence of art on every other wall across Bristol, somehow, most locally celebrated artists seem to be unaware or even know if there are any legal walls in the city.
The stretch near Cumberland Basin is popular as a canvas for painting among city artists – photo – Rob Browne
“With the amount of money that paint is bringing to Bristol, something should be done,” says Anna, a local artist who goes by the name Annaskor85. “Any wall that you don’t have the proper permission for from the wall owner is not a legal wall. So, there’s nowhere for people that don’t have their walls or gardens to hone their skills.”
Anna recalls starting a website many years ago called Free Walls, where she hoped to collate a list of legal spaces within Bristol. On contacting Bristol City Council, Anna was referred to the graffiti department, which forms part of the council’s waste department, who Anna says were unaware of any legal walls in Bristol.
One space that came up constantly in conversation with Anna and other artists was Dean Lane skatepark. While that has also not been officially dubbed a legal wall, some say grafitti there has been “tolerated” over the years.
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Another wall that falls into a similar category is the interior of the Mina Road tunnel in St Werburgh’s, a space that’s been painted on by many artists for over 12 years. However, according to People’s Republic of Stokes Croft, an artist was arrested for painting over this wall in June 2020, further perplexing artists on the matter of legal walls.
But for another local artist, who wishes to remain anonymous, these “grey area or sort of tolerated walls” are an essential aid in the development of an artist’s artwork. He adds: “A lot of people’s style and techniques have changed, developed and improved because of them. I think, within the culture of street art and graffiti, it’s not all about tagging. For a lot of people, going to paint a wall is very much a social thing where they do it with a group of people.”
Despite the general whisper of certain tolerated walls within the city and the existence of a 17-year-old, outdated website on legal walls, Bristol City Council have clarified that the city currently has “no legal walls”, emphasising that there are no places “street artists can legally use without express permission from the property owner”.
In August, artists Goldie and his friends painted a mural in the memory of late the DJ Randall in the Brunel Way underpass – photo – Rob Browne
Artist Rosa ter Kuile, aka RTiiiKA, founder of the Bristol Mural Collective, recalls “needing more legal walls” as being one of the themes that led to the formation of the group.
She explains: “Bristol Mural Collective is especially for people who don’t feel confident to go out be alone on the street. That’s why we do paint jams. But we didn’t organise them for almost a year, after we got into trouble with the police at one spot and we were stopped from painting.
“If you’re gonna be spending a longer time to make street art that’s gonna be impactful, it means it needs to be a real labour of love. For that, legal walls would be a game changer, as they’ll help get more underrepresented people into making art.”
Rosa, Anna and Caroline are among the many artists in Bristol who use street art as a medium of expression – photo: Karen Johnson
Rosa, along with others from the collective, has recently been in touch with the council’s art and public realm programme, which was developed in 2009 to focus on “the development of visionary public art works across the city outside of conventional gallery and museum settings, instead bringing to life the streets, empty buildings, parks, fields and spaces in between”.
Caroline Marks, another member of the Bristol Mural Collective, sees the legal walls debate as a bit of a “dichotomy between Bristol and lots of companies in Bristol”. She argues that while commissioning artists to paint the walls of buildings is amazing, how is an artist expected to reach a point in their career where they can apply for such bids without practice? Caroline adds: “If you can’t practice doing large-scale walls, then it’s only gonna be a very small pool of people in Bristol who do that. It cuts so many incredible artists out of these opportunities.”
Some may argue that certain categories of street art should be categorised as vandalism. Tagging is an example that often comes up – a form of street art where the artist stylises their signature, nickname or symbol. However, Rosa argues that in many cases these “taggers” might also be “amazing artists”.
Bristol Mural Collective appeared on the Bristol24/7 Summer 2023 magazine cover
Artist Jody Thomas, generally known as Jody, says that while tagging, in the eyes of the council and police may look “unsightly”, artists like him “see the style in it”.
In all cases, Caroline adds, the question surrounding the nature of street art varies, depending on what is important: the process of creating it or the finished product?
“I think for the paint jam specifically, it’s a space to practice. So I would say, for me personally, that it’s so much about the process and connections. Being an artist in general can be quite isolating – you may be working individually, you may not even be selling your art and you might just be doing art privately. So, it’s really wonderful having a space where you can share your passion with other people.”
From walls to shopfronts – all parts of North Street are filled with commissioned artworks – photo – Rob Browne.jpg
If you were to walk through Bristol, there are chances you’d stop more than once to look at the meaningful street art that adorns many of its walls. In many cases, street art has become a tool of expression against injustice, a tool that has not only been used in Bristol.
In 2020, artists across the globe – in Karachi, Nairobi, Berlin and other places – used street art as a medium to paint their anger and pain after the tragic killing of George Floyd.
As Jody put it: “If you were to stop anyone in the street in Bristol, and ask why did they come to this city, I would almost guarantee that in the top three would be the street art.”
While the council denies the existence of legal walls to paint within the city, Bristol’s official tourism website, Visit Bristol, details the city’s street art culture at length. Its website encourages visitors to join the Bristol Street Art Tour to use their street art map to explore the many creations hidden within the city.
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Read more: Finding community on Bristol’s walls
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Jody argues: “Where street art lands legally is very difficult because there is an ever-increasing amount of artists in Bristol and there’s a diminishing amount of wall space. And so while there are designated spaces where we all paint, we do paint with the eyes in the back of our heads.
“I think Bristol City Council have a bit of a difficult position to maintain. They tend to hit things hard and say: ‘ We’re gonna clean up the streets, we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do that’. But, if they came along and they saw a Banksy there, would they clean around it?”
In 2014, several street art lovers in the city were pleasantly surprised to see Banksy’s Mobile Lovers appear on a doorway near Broad Plain and Riverside Youth Project. The youth club, which was facing threats of closure due to financial constraints, was then able to sell the Banksy mural for £560,000 – thereby saving the club.
When asked about street art and its legality in Bristol, Martin Fodor, Green councillor and chair of the council’s environment and sustainability committee, said: “Street art can enhance an area and foster a strong sense of identity in the local community, but should be done with explicit approval from the property owner. We have a duty of care to residents and businesses to ensure our neighbourhoods remain clean and fit for purpose.
“We do take action to remove graffiti and tagging, and prosecute those caught in the act, especially if it is deemed to be obscene, offensive or explicit. However, in the future we will look to explore ways that both support Bristol street artists to express themselves, while also protecting our local communities and keeping our streets clean.”
Many artists in Bristol yearn for legal walls because they provide safe spaces for expression. In no way do they encourage abusive or offensive art, but they rally support for the many artists who move to this city in hopes of learning, growing and eventually building a career. For local artists, including veterans and those just starting out, the question of legal walls continues to be ever-present.
This article first appeared in Bristol24/7’s September-October 2025 magazine
Main photo: Rob Browne
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