ANGRY DAN’S ICONS OF LONDON

BRIT STREET ARTIST/LIMERIST EXTRAORDINAIRE ANGRY DAN is anything but angry. As recounted by Georgie Mortimer at *Secret London, February 22, 2019, “Someone’s Been Leaving Limericks Around London (And They Really Make You Smile).”

And Tim Stokes of BBC News, September 1, 2024, describes Angry Dan as “The street artist mapping London’s local icons.”

Angry Dan and his latest achievement. This and following images from BBC News.

Here are tidbits of Angry Dan’s whimsical art gleaned from these sources.

Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch. This and following images from *Secret London.

His Limerick Murals. Georgie Mortimer wrote in *Secret London, “Poet and street artist, Angry Dan, has been painting limericks all over London. You’ll find seven of his murals in situ at the moment, with most of them hiding in and around Shoreditch and Camden.”

Jealous Rooftop, Shoreditch.

Mortimer quotes the artist, “I’ve been writing limericks for ages but only started drawing them a couple of years ago. I hadn’t really drawn since primary school, which is why they look they way they do…. I get more inspiration from what’s going on around me, rather than other artists. Whether I’m walking around town, down the market, or on the tube, I’m always thinking up silly rhymes.”

Old Gloucester Road, Holboorn.

Angry Dan’s London. Tim Stokes describes in BBC News, “Angry Dan spent more than six months on the illustration, which features more than 850 landmarks and people—everything from Roman remains and world-renowned museums, to infamous housing estates and legendary chicken shops…. The Walthamstow-based artist said he wanted to ‘create one huge artwork to remind us all why London is such an amazing place to live.’ ”

“However,” Stokes says, “he was inspired to take to his studio and start the map following a stint as a London tour guide for some visiting foreign language students. ‘That forced me to do all of this stuff that you usually wouldn’t really do as an old-school Londoner, all the touristy stuff, and I completely fell in love with the city over and over again,’ he explains.”

London Zoo, Sylvia Plath’s House, and Sex Pistols.

Stokes continues, “Dan spent more than 1,000 hours researching the piece, looking at blogs, Reddit and Facebook groups to find suggestions of what could be found in the city’s different neighbourhoods.”

A Roman Amphitheatre, Bank of England, and Slam City Skates.

As an example, Stokes quotes Angry Dan: “South London’s a place where if people love it, then they really, really love it, you don’t want to get it wrong, so I was really careful to do a lot of research about stuff to include.” 

“As a result,” Stokes observes, “local landmarks like Forest Hill’s quirkily named Ferfect Fried Chicken and Highgate’s brutalist Whittington Estate feature alongside institutions like the National Gallery and the British Library. Current and historical famous figures are also represented. Alan Turing’s Maida Vale birthplace is marked with a computer, while Mo Farah’s trainer can be found in the south-west of the city.”

Angry Dan has thoughts of doing a Big Apple mural.

The London Mural Festival, September 8-29. On September 8, a 5000-sq-ft version of Angry Dan’s London mural was pasted on the tarmac floor in Mandeville Place, in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, east London. 

Stokes recounts, “Dan says those visitors to Stratford in a week’s time will be able to ‘interact with the map, walk all over it, have an ice cream and drop your ice cream on it, all that sort of stuff.’ ”

“In the afternoon,” Stokes says, “they will be invited to tear up bits of it so they can take home their own little pieces of London.”

“I’m not sure how neat and tidy that process is going to be but that’s the general idea, anyway,” Angry Dan says. ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024