In a quiet street of Bayswater, London, Banksy has unveiled a poignant new mural just days before Christmas. The artwork, depicting two children warmly dressed and stargazing, is stenciled on the walls of garage buildings and may allude to the estimated 102,000 homeless children living in temporary housing in the capital.
Though Banksy claimed the piece on Queen’s Mews through Instagram, a similar design appeared on a concrete barrier outside Centre Point tower in Central London. While the artist hasn’t confirmed his involvement with this second piece, the location holds particular importance.
Centre Point, known as the “North Star,” is a Brutalist tower, initially constructed between 1963 and 1966, which remained largely unused for nearly a decade. In 1969, Reverend Ken Leech turned the basement of St. Anne’s Church into a temporary shelter called Centrepoint, in defiance of the empty tower as a protest against homelessness.
By 1974, amidst a severe recession, about 100 Londoners occupied the vacant tower, highlighting the city’s growing homelessness crisis. Despite the passing decades, issues like housing affordability and food insecurity persist, with recent studies showing nearly 300,000 families in England experiencing severe homelessness by 2025.
Banksy is renowned for his guerrilla art, often addressing global crises and current affairs. Recently, in September, he depicted a judge striking a protester outside London’s Royal Courts of Justice, reflecting on the arrests of 900 people following the government’s classification of Palestine Action as a terrorist organization.
