There’s graffiti and then there’s graffiti. Sadly, around Leeds there tends to be more ‘so-and-so waz ere’ graffiti than Banksy. That said, I’m a big fan of graffiti done well. Inner city train journey’s are certainly made less boring with a variety of graffiti.
Clearly the tagger has a certain style and flair with the spray can, and I like the green and blue used, but it does lack a certain pazazz. The one below is on the same bridge and is a typical example of common-all-garden inner city graffiti, which is why people view graffiti as a blight on the urban landscape instead of the art form it can be.
Compare the shots above with this snapshot from Memphis. Wouldn’t our cities be brighter with more of this?
A shame, because Leeds, like a lot of cities, has a lot of dull, grey concrete that needs livening up.
WeavingLight 
I am with you on graffiti – tags and vandalism I do not condone, but street art can be pretty spectacular!
The youth service here tried to run a graffiti project, but the council blocked them. In the end they had to do it using big pieces of plywood. Some of the stuff they did was amazing, but the council still saw it as teaching kids to tag walls!!
Some councils are short-sighted, others aren’t. Worthing is totally anti-graffiti, but Brighton, while not encouraging it exactly, allows spaces to be taken over by street art. There are some cracking designs out there too, from Bob Marley to Ang San Suu Kyi!
Like the street art from Memphis
I was surprised I was able to find the negative!
Totally agree – graffiti (BOO!), street art (YEAH!) Love that last piece š
Yes, Memphis does allow street art, but mostly because it’s been dead broke since they shot MLK there. Many other East Coast cities are still obsessed with fascist grey………