10Foot, Tox and Fume's art exhibition shut down after 'f**k the King' graffiti

Is graffiti vandalism or art? It depends, apparently, whether you’re inside an art gallery or outside of it. 

A graffiti exhibition supported by Banksy and prolific writer 10Foot has been shut after someone sprayed “fuck the King” on the building, which is owned by the Crown Estate.

The LONG DARK TUNNEL exhibition at Arts Arkade in Piccadilly Circus was launched alongside Big Issue’s radical 10Foot takeover magazine. The mag was a runaway success, generating huge sales and putting extra cash into the pockets of our vendors. 

• ‘If I didn’t do graffiti I’d be doing way worse crimes’: Banksy interviews Tox, London’s most prolific vandal
• Piccadilly Circus was once the ‘best display of popular art anywhere in London’. What happened?
• Graffiti writer 10Foot on finding meaning in the ugly and his ‘disgustingly deep love of London’

But the companion exhibition – “the most authentic” showing of London graffiti culture “ever held in the capital” – closed three days early, after a spate of anti-monarchy graffiti.

10Foot slammed the early closure as unnecessary.

“It’s the same old story: We’re treated as antisocial idiots and they won’t engage in dialogue with us when we do something widely recognised as positive. Getting bullied by the powerful really makes you feel like a fox being chased by the hunt,” he said.

“We threw everything at this show with nothing but good, generative intention. People have come from all over the country in their hundreds. We raised hundreds of thousands for homeless people. But when someone’s written ‘fuck the King’ in the middle of the night we’ve been told we’re a risk and they have pulled the plug. They could clean it off but instead they’d prefer to throw us under the bus.”

The show was supposed to run until 13 April with sales of a print available at Arts Arkade helping to raise thousands for Big issue. It instead closed on 10 April. Passersby spotted workers in hi-vis Crown Estate tabards tearing down the promotional poster from the building yards across from Piccadilly Circus. 

Venue Arts Arkade blamed “serious incidents of vandalism and criminal damage”.

“The criminal damage we’ve experienced is totally unacceptable and is not a matter we take lightly,” they posted on Instagram. Nonetheless, they praised the exhibitions ‘positive outcomes’.

“Over the past three weeks, the exhibition has welcomed thousands of visitors, and partnered with the Big Issue. We are grateful to all those who helped bring this event to life – including 10Foot, Tox, Fume, event staff, supporters, and to the public for their overwhelming interest and engagement.”

With a £15.5bn property portfolio held by the monarch, the Crown Estate is one of the biggest landlords in the country. The estate declined to comment, citing an ongoing criminal investigation. 

Street art has always existed in the grey area between self-expression and illegality. “If I didn’t do graffiti I’d be doing way worse crimes,” Tox told Banksy in the takeover special.

In 2011, Tox was imprisoned for 26 months, and Crown Prosecution Service barristers referred to him as “no Banksy”. In the takeover special interview, Banksy talks to Tox about how he was banned from carrying pens on public transport, under threat of jail time.

Banksy opens the interview: “Hello Tox. Are you allowed to carry pens on a bus yet?” (It was rumoured in graffiti circles that Tox had done so much damage and been caught so many times that he was banned from carrying any mark-making tool on public transport, under penalty of an immediate 30 day jail term.)

Tox responds: “It wasn’t 30 days, it was five years maximum cos it was breach of ASBO, I think that’s what you’re on about init? ASBO means antisocial behaviour order where they could lock you up for stuff that wasn’t actually a criminal offence, stuff like trespass and carrying a can of spray paint.”

Tox featured in the now shuttered exhibition. He’s not said anything publicly about the closure – but if his interview is anything to go by, graffiti can be both art and vandalism, both inside and outside the gallery.

“I didn’t never go straight, I’m under investigation right now,” he told Banksy.

“And we’re not doing it establishment, we’re doing it our own way. We don’t beg the posh art world or the Shoreditch art world, we’re doing it ourself the un-legit way, the writer way, the way people would expect us to do and it’s all friends in our circle.”

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