An up and coming part of the East End, Hackney Wick was part of old, industrial London, near to the River Thames and Docklands. Joined by a network of canals it was home to many warehouse and engineering premises, old factories and sitting right on the edge of the Olympic park, it was ripe for re-generation.
When Hackney Central began to get expensive, artists started moving wholesale to the Wick, where no end of opportunity lay in wait. Huge old factory buildings converted into cheap artists studios. Before long there was a growing network of creatives and associated services spreading out along the canal complex and in no time it had become the place to be. Nightlife with raves, reminiscent of the 90's, film festivals showing underground and innovative work, often outdoors or on the water itself and some of the most eclectic and well organised art events from major programmes began flooding into the area.
It wasn't long before building owners began selling up to developers and apartment blocks started springing up where breakers yards had previously sold used car parts. The community was slightly cut off between the arterial highway of the A12 road and the Olympic Park, but being London it was always going to evolve week by week and as money moved in Street Art began to slowly move out.
There is an old abandoned pub. At one point it was an entire street art canvas bedecked by a number of well known artists. The walls of the warehouse buildings became like an art gallery where street art could flourish beyond the usual confines of stencil art and spray can tags. (I will show that series in another post.)
Here it was not just witty statements about urban life emulating Banksy it was also about conceptual art, abstract art, the kind of work done by young artists finding their voice. I often stop when I'm passing through to see what's new. Although the walls are slowly being replaced with generic developer grey brick, it still has that charm that says I don't care what you think. Although some of the artists who were quickest to make the Wick their home, soon found the appeal of Peckham too much to hold them back.
These images are by no means my best capture of street art. Angles and compositions are a bit loose and the drab conditions means that they are a bit lack lustre in comparison to say the images from Cadaques or Williamsberg NY. They are however, creatively some of the most original and interesting images I have seen in Street art and capture a sense of the freedom artists at the Wick have experienced in it's short but interesting epoch as a refuge for out of pocket young artists.
sample EXIF data = 1/60th @ f4 ISO 125 which considering the overcast light is very similar for most of the images here
