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Lefty political grafitti usually warms the cockles of my heart for some reason.
A bridge in Stamford Hill, on Dunsmure Road, used to have "Tax the Rich, Not The Poor, One Solution, Class War", which was just quality and quantity in one. Then it got cleaned off only for "Jah Live, Rastafari" to replace it, which was nice, but not as inspiring each day when strolling past.
Somewhere in Hackney: "The War On Drugs/It Is A Sham/Peru Will Be The Next Vietnam", which I recall spending hours deconstructing, particularly the poor metre, which is very hard to get to scan properly. Another classic was the stencil of the fearsomely-bearded image of the imprisoned leader of Sendero Luminoso with the tag "Move Heaven And Earth To Preserve The Life Of Chairman Gonzalo", seen all over places in North London where Maoists would gather (mostly around Turnpike Lane/Manor House and Kingsland Road as I recall). It seemed a bit odd hardcore communists invoking heaven, but they seemed very determined that his plight should be kept on the daily agenda of the streets.
On the wall of the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park for years (and cleaned off by the Xian con-merches who own it now. For fuck's sake, this is the place Zappa fell off the stage and put himself in a wheelchair!) : "Pakovliez"; and of course the perennial "Red Action Are Scum".
Not political, but another favourite found scrawled all over Shoredich and points south for a while a few years back: "Your Mum Rang", which has a certain resonance.
Still up there at number one for me though, and I don't know if it's there still, is the big wall-length paint-job (not a spray can work as I recall) just off Cricklewood Lane - the evocatively obscure "Baldrick's Trousers". Now that's poetry. |
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