"Banksy has struck again, revealing a new mural on a quiet cobblestoned street in the London neighborhood of Bayswater just days before Christmas. Depicting two bundled-up children lying down and stargazing, the stenciled street art that appeared over a row of garages could be a reference to the estimated 102,000 unhoused children residing in temporary accommodations in the capital city."
"Nicknamed the 'North Star' locally, the Centre Point tower is a Brutalist behemoth that was constructed between 1963 and 1966 as an office building but stood empty for practically a decade after its completion. In 1969, Reverend Ken Leech, an Anglican socialist minister who worked specifically with youths struggling with homelessness and addiction, opened the basement of the nearby St. Anne's Church as a temporary shelter. He named it Centrepoint after the tower, which he regarded as an 'affront to the homeless.'"
Banksy created a stenciled mural in Bayswater showing two bundled-up children lying down and stargazing over a row of garages, possibly referencing an estimated 102,000 unhoused children living in temporary accommodations in London. An identical motif appeared on a concrete divider outside the Centre Point tower, a site with historical ties to homelessness activism. Centre Point inspired the name of a shelter opened by Reverend Ken Leech in 1969; Centrepoint later became a leading support organization for unhoused youths. In 1974 activists occupied the empty tower amid recession and housing crisis, and affordability and accessibility issues persist.
Read at Hyperallergic
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