Leake Street is a 300-metre road tunnel beneath Waterloo station that has operated as London’s best-known legal graffiti wall since 2008, when Banksy chose it as the site for a three-day street art festival. Every surface — walls, ceiling, pillars — is covered in constantly changing spray-paint work, repainted by artists and members of the public so often that nothing on the walls today is likely to still be there in a few weeks. It’s free, open around the clock, a five-minute walk from Waterloo station, and one of the few places in central London where you can watch street art being made in real time.

History of Leake Street

From York Street to a Eurostar Taxi Rank

The tunnel wasn’t always called Leake Street. Before the 1920s, it was known as York Street, later renamed in honour of Dr John Leake, an 18th-century physician who founded the Westminster Lying-In Hospital in 1767 — a mostly forgotten piece of medical history now attached to one of London’s most photographed pieces of contemporary street art. For much of the late 20th century, the tunnel served a purely functional role, running beneath the arches of Waterloo station as a through road. When the Eurostar terminal opened at Waterloo International in 1994, Leake Street became a taxi rank and vehicle route for Eurostar passengers — a role it held until the Eurostar service relocated to St Pancras in 2007, leaving the tunnel redundant, poorly lit, and largely avoided.

Banksy’s Cans Festival

The tunnel’s transformation began over the May bank holiday weekend of 2008, from 3–5 May, when the street artist Banksy organised “The Cans Festival” in collaboration with the collective Pictures on Walls. Around 30 artists — including established names like Blek le Rat, C215, and Faile — were invited to fill the tunnel’s walls with stencil work, with the only rule being that nobody’s art could be painted directly over someone else’s during the event. Members of the public who brought their own stencils and paint were also given space to take part, an unusually democratic gesture for an event headlined by one of the art world’s most guarded figures. The festival drew more than 30,000 visitors over three days, and its timing wasn’t a coincidence — it coincided with a major street art exhibition at Tate Modern, part of a broader moment when graffiti and stencil art were shifting from underground subculture into mainstream recognition.

The event proved popular enough that a second instalment, Cans II, followed on the August bank holiday weekend that same year. On 14 November 2008, ownership of the road formally passed from Eurostar to Network Rail, and through vehicular traffic was permanently restricted, converting Leake Street from a functioning road into a pedestrian space. What began as a temporary festival had, within a single year, become something more permanent: an accepted, ongoing site for legal graffiti.

From One Weekend to a Permanent Legal Wall

In the years since, Leake Street has never stopped being painted. Unlike a curated gallery or a one-off festival, the tunnel operates on an ongoing, first-come-first-served basis — anyone can turn up with spray paint and add their own work, with no booking, permission, or fee required. That openness is precisely why the tunnel is often described as London’s longest legal graffiti wall, and why it looks completely different from one visit to the next. Long-running photographic projects tracking the same short stretch of wall over consecutive days have documented the same section being repainted multiple times within a matter of weeks — turnover that would be unthinkable in any conventional gallery, but is entirely the point here.

The Unwritten Rules of a Legal Wall

Nothing at Leake Street is permanent, and that’s a deliberate feature rather than a shortcoming. There’s no curator, no approval process, and no guarantee that a piece painted this morning will survive the afternoon — anyone is free to paint over existing work at any time. In practice, an informal etiquette has developed among regular artists: freshly finished, high-effort pieces are generally given some time before being painted over, and outright “capping” (deliberately painting over someone else’s unfinished or recent work out of disrespect) is frowned upon within the community, even though nothing stops it happening. For visitors, this means the specific murals described in any guide — including this one — are almost guaranteed to have changed by the time you visit. What doesn’t change is the tunnel’s basic character: dense, layered, constantly evolving artwork covering every visible surface.

Leake Street Arches Today

The graffiti tunnel now sits at the centre of a wider development known as Leake Street Arches, where several of the railway arches flanking the tunnel have been converted into bars, gig venues, and event spaces, including immersive theatre productions that have used the atmospheric, tunnel-adjacent setting to good effect. This means Leake Street operates on two overlapping schedules: during the day, it functions largely as an open-air street art gallery, visited by tourists, photographers, and artists at work; in the evening, particularly on weekends, it takes on more of a nightlife character, with the surrounding arches drawing crowds for bars and events. Visitors purely interested in the art itself will generally find a calmer, more contemplative experience earlier in the day.

Visiting Leake Street: Practical Information

Opening hours: The tunnel is a public pedestrian street, technically open 24 hours a day. In practice, daytime hours — particularly mid-morning through late afternoon — offer the best light for photography and the calmest atmosphere for viewing the art.

Admission: Completely free, with no ticket or entry requirement to walk through the tunnel itself. Individual bars, venues, or ticketed events within the Leake Street Arches development may have their own separate costs.

Address: Leake Street, London SE1 7NN, running beneath Waterloo station between York Road and the area near Westminster Bridge Road.

Nearest station: Waterloo and Waterloo East stations are both about a five-minute walk away, with signs pointing toward Leake Street from the station area. The tunnel can also be reached from the Westminster Bridge Roundabout side, near the Park Plaza County Hall hotel.

How long to allow: Walking the full 300-metre tunnel takes 10–15 minutes, though photographers and street art enthusiasts often spend 30–45 minutes taking in the detail and watching artists at work if any are painting during the visit.

Accessibility: The tunnel is a flat, paved former road, fully step-free and generally accessible to wheelchair users.

Safety: Leake Street is a public, well-used pedestrian route rather than an isolated location, and is generally considered safe to visit during daytime and early evening hours, when it sees a steady flow of visitors, photographers, and artists. As with any quieter London street, exercising ordinary caution late at night, as you would anywhere, is sensible.

Managing body: The tunnel itself is owned by Network Rail, which formally restricted it to pedestrian use in November 2008. The surrounding Leake Street Arches venues are separately operated by commercial tenants.

Nearby: The London Eye, Southbank Centre, and the South Bank riverside walk are all within a 10–15 minute walk, making Leake Street an easy addition to a wider day exploring the South Bank.

Practical details last verified 7 August 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is graffiti actually legal at Leake Street?

Yes. Leake Street has operated as a designated legal graffiti space since Banksy’s 2008 Cans Festival, and anyone can paint on the tunnel’s walls without permission or booking. This makes it one of the only places in central London where street art can legally be created in public.

Is Leake Street connected to Banksy?

Yes, directly. The tunnel’s transformation into a graffiti space began when Banksy organised “The Cans Festival” there over the May bank holiday weekend of 2008, inviting around 30 artists and members of the public to paint the walls. The tunnel is still sometimes nicknamed “the Banksy Tunnel” as a result, though it’s now maintained by the wider street art community rather than Banksy personally.

Will the same street art still be there when I visit?

Almost certainly not. Leake Street operates on a first-come-first-served basis with no curation, and artists regularly paint over existing work. Sections of wall have been documented being repainted multiple times within just a few weeks, so the tunnel’s appearance changes constantly rather than displaying fixed, permanent murals.

Is Leake Street free to visit?

Yes, walking through the tunnel is completely free and requires no ticket. Some bars, venues, and events within the surrounding Leake Street Arches development do charge separately.

What is the nearest station to Leake Street?

Waterloo and Waterloo East stations are both roughly a five-minute walk away, with signage directing visitors toward Leake Street from the station area.

Can members of the public paint at Leake Street, or only professional artists?

Anyone can paint at Leake Street — it’s a genuinely open, first-come-first-served wall, not restricted to invited or professional artists. This openness dates back to the original 2008 Cans Festival, where members of the public were given space to paint alongside established street artists.

Leake Street makes a natural stop on a wider South Bank walk — see our guide to the London Eye, a short walk away, or browse more of London’s Neighbourhoods. For more on planning a South Bank day out, visit our full Travel Guides or the England hub.