Banksy Locations (and a Tour) Vol.2

A proportion of book sales will be donated to support the excellent work of three charitable organisations - Bristol Mind, Ben's Centre, and merls [change]. 

Remember Banksy Locations and Tours, a pocket size book produced in 2006 which detailed locations of Banksy street artwork? That was structured around 3 tour routes of Banksy’s wall art in London that a lucky few experienced free of charge at the time, though a bit like the Sex Pistols at Manchester Free Trade the number that claim to have been on those tours now exceeds the population of the UK.





That popular book was the work of Martin Bull aka Shellshock who some of you may remember as an incredibly helpful and knowledgeable member on the eBay forum and Darkside right back when they launched. Shellshock has done it again with the release this week of Banksy Locations (and a Tour) Vol 2.


The significant difference between Vol 1 and Vol 2 is that Vol 2 addresses all the other areas in the UK where Banksy has been active EXCEPT the locations covered by Vol 2. So that’s all “new” stuff then.







Vol 2 is a fascinating insight into some of the older and more provincial Banksy street art which London-locked, house-bound or overseas folk don’t get to see. Though one or two of the London Banksys included in Vol 2 were only a couple of hundred yards off the routes of the original tours, they didn’t make Vol 1 simply because they involved too much of a route deviation to actually be included in Shellshock’s tours.





Stylistically it sticks faithfully to the blueprint established by Vol 2, which is to say there are photographs, with locations, notes on relevant history and an update on condition – if it has any! Regard it as a kind of I-Spy guide to Banksy’s public works and the ideal sister publication to Vol 1.

Vol 2 is published in hardback, making it harder wearing for those walking/cycling/charabanc tours.





Quoting from Shellshock’s own writing to add further colour and details on how to obtain a copy:

“It’s a whopping 380 pages of hardback book and includes his street work all the way up to this October. There was just so much more to write than Vol.1; there are more locations (over 135, of which almost half are still worth visiting), more news (especially on the more recent pieces), better photo ops, and a few flounces of creativity. There is obviously no hiding that it is very similar format to Vol.1, in that it is based on locations, my photos and info/history about the piece. BUT there is a little more leeway in Vol 2 because it is less tour based (the only tour is in Bristol, which is pretty good actually; a lot survives, including some very hidden gems), and although it rounds up a lot of locations in London that couldn’t be covered by Vol.1, a third of the locations actually come from Bristol, Brighton & the South Coast, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Glasgow, and the rural West Country.




• Over 135 detailed locations of Banksy’s street graffiti, past & present
• A full walking tour of his remaining work in Bristol
• Information, random facts & idle chit-chat on each location
• Over 220 colour photographs, on 380 pages
• Snippets of art/graffiti by Eine, Faile, Inkie, Kato, Mode 2, BA / DBZ, & Rowdy
• 12% of [the] sale price donated to charitable organisations (24% when sold directly by [Shellshock])
• ISBN = 978-0955471230 / R.R.P. = £12.50