Banksy’s Urban Zoo Arrives in London

A series of artworks from Banksy featuring animals have been appearing in London. Featuring a wide array of bird and animal life they appeared every day for nine days and all across the city. Could this be Banksy’s Urban Zoo?

Banksy Urban Zoo

As usual with works from Banksy the authenticity of these pieces have been announced on instagram. After this there generally tends to be a mad rush with everyone trying to get a snap. Photographers, bloggers, journalists and members of the public all trying to get a peek before it inevitably might end up being removed or covered to ‘protect’ it.

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Mountain Goat

And context is very important to Banksy. For this series of pieces he has chosen to offer no explanation at all. Rather, the artwork does the talking. Starting with the mountain goat standing on the housing support pillar in Kew. It appears as if balancing with rocks falling off. There could be many explanations for this but all would be speculation without the additional artworks.

Two Elephants

The day after two elephants appeared in Chelsea. Hanging out of some blocked up windows they are shown reaching out to each other with their trunks. Interestingly there is a discoloured brick directly between the two. In the finished artwork it appears as if the brick is a ball and it is been passed over. A game perhaps?

Three Monkeys

Day three and Banksy visited his former stomping ground of Brick Lane. Here he has painted three monkeys hanging from the overground line. It’s nice to see a Banksy back around this area. There was a time when many of his monkeys would have been stencilled on walls around here. He is of course well known for using animals such as apes and rats in his work.

Wolf and the Moon

On day four, Banksy posted a picture of a silhouetted wolf howling at the moon in Peckham. Painted onto an old satellite dish it was placed on top of a old shuttered shop unit. It’s not certain that the dish itself was there prior to the painting. Indicating that Banksy might have brought that particular prop along with him. Of course of all the paintings currently made this was by far the most easily removable and as a result it didn’t last two minutes. The BBC reported that two men had been spotted taking it down very soon after Banksy posted the piece on his instagram.

Pelicans at the Fish Bar

Day five saw two pelicans appear on top of a fish bar in Walthamstow. As people are getting more attuned to this now, the artworks were announced on social media from many different sources from early on in the day. Sticking to his policy of only announcing at 1pm, Banksy kept people waiting to confirm. However looking at the style and context it was pretty obvious. Some of the images captured on social media also gave a little clue as to how the works were being made. In one image the back of a lorry with a cherry picker can be seen with two people on the lift. Both were dressed in hard hats and bright orange jackets.

Stretching Cat on a Billboard

A cat stretching out on the panels of an old billboard up in Cricklewood was the piece created for day six. The plywood panels of the billboard had obviously been left for some time. The semi-ok side hosted the cat stencil whilst the other badly corroded side was left. The resultant image made it appear as if the cat had used the billboard panel to scratch its claws onto. Within hours of it going up however the entire board was removed by someone allegedly from the billboard company.

Local street art fans who had flocked to the location at first attempting to stop the removal. Forming a shield around the piece, they wouldn’t leave or allow the removal to take place until the police arrived. Once they did they said that they had checked the whole thing and indeed the owner of the billboard wanted it removed. According to Blocal Blog who were there on the scene this was because he was (wait for it) “concerned for the safety of the people walking past it”. This was due to the poor condition of the billboard. Obviously it takes the appearance of a fully fledged Banksy artwork to make people consider health and safety these days.

Piranha Tank

Possibly the most audacious piece created in this weeklong pursuit of London based Banksy’s was on day seven. Here on a City of London police booth he has placed a series of window stickers featuring shoals of Piranhas. The booth on Ludgate Hill is the most central of all the pieces so far being in the City of London itself. Of course Banksy has a long history of trolling the police and this is the latest piece to do so. When asked to comment on the artwork Sky News reported that Detective chief inspector Andy Spooner, from City of London Police had said: “We are aware of criminal damage to a City of London Police box in Ludgate Hill. Adding that “We are liaising with the City of London Corporation who own the police box.”

Despite this seeming concern for the “criminal damage” the police booth was soon removed. According to more police sources it was taken to the Guildhall Yard to ensure that it is properly protected. Adding that the public there would be able to view it safely with a permanent home to be decided in due course.

Rhino on a Car

In Charlton, South East London, an abandoned car was the inspiration behind Banksy’s work on day eight. It’s a return to his use of already existing but semi-permanent features in the urban landscape. For this image, it would not have been possible to achieve without the car, but the car could be removed at any time. It’s something he previously used to good effect with the Hula Hooping Girl in Nottingham (a broken bike) and the woman with the freezer in Margate (an actual freezer).

Here the image shows the Rhino mounting the back of a silver Nissan Micra. It looks as if the car is straining against the weight but that’s an illusion caused by the fact that it has a flat back tyre. In front, Banksy has clearly placed a traffic cone onto the bonnet as an additional prop. The cheeky inference being that the Rhino has mistaken the knackered old car as a potential mate.

Escape from London Zoo

The ninth day of the the continued Banksy Urban Zoo resulted in a piece on shutters at the actual London Zoo. Here a gorilla is shown lifting up the shutter and allowing a seal and some birds to escape. Given it’s location and prominence it’s been assumed that this was the culmination piece to nine days of appearing artworks. Banksy himself had been releasing the others at 1pm each day on his instagram. This one was released a number of hours early. Something that also timed with a post from ZSL London Zoo themselves. It’s also been speculated that the Gorilla in the piece is inspired by Guy the Gorilla one of the most famous historical residents of the zoo.

That post from London Zoo indicated quite clearly that they may have been in cahoots with Banksy the whole time. Simply saying “Is our (big) cat out of the bag? Have our animals been helping people to smile all over London this week?”

The Urban Zoo

So this has become Banksy’s urban zoo. The animals have been using London as their playground and Banksy has been at the centre of it. From a publicity point of view it’s obviously great for the zoo. Knowing that Banksy himself has often supported environmental concerns it’s also no real surprise that he’s chosen to partner (or at least collaborate) with London Zoo. There breeding programmes are some of the Worlds best.

According to fellow zoo artist Jane Mutiny (speaking on instagram in response to a critical comment). That breeding programme has successfully re-released an extinct species of Polynesian Snail back into the wild and successfully bred a rare species of frog where others have failed. “Say what you like about crap zoos” she says. “But ZSL isn’t one of them”.

The artworks as part of Banksy’s Urban Zoo were created between 5th and the 13th August 2024. With thanks to Hannah Judah and Giulia Riva from Blocal for being on the ground and with their help for this piece.

For more articles you might like, take a look at…

• Where to find Banksy in the UK
• Banksy Artwork Appears in Finsbury Park
• The Street Art of Rivington Street in London
• Rewilding the City Through Banksy’s London Zoo