Alternative London
location_on London
local_activity classes: Painting
4.8 (13)
8k followers
Alternative London Tours was founded in 2010 by long-time East End resident and activist Gary Means. After a stint of travelling the world, Gary returned to his hometown and was able to see it in a different context. He realised that even the most up-to-date locals would struggle to find the best street art and graffiti in London, due to the ever-changing and clandestine nature of the art.
Local street artists and creatives came on board to shape our collective and to generate a realistic London income to fund their creative endeavours. As our team grew, we began to offer hands-on experiences like our Street Art & Graffiti Workshops. We started with an old London bus as our HQ, and have now opened London’s only purpose-built spray painting workshop space. London is so much more than colonial buildings and statues. For us, it’s about people and communities. We are proud to shine the spotlight on the underdogs; the vagabonds, the non-conformists, the immigrants, the creatives and creative thinkers who made our endlessly fascinating community the vibrant, cultural epicentre it is today.
Classes
Reviews
(13)
Liza • Mar 2024
What an awesome afternoon! On the tour, Natalie gave us all the stories and insight into the different techniques and styles with the inside knowledge of being a street artist herself. But the workshop was even better. She had us all designing, cutting and spraying multi layered stencils like pros. She’s brilliant, and we loved it. 100% recommend.
Tessa Deterding • Feb 2024
This was great! The tour (led by brilliant Natalie) really opened my eyes to some of the stunning work hidden all over the east end. I loved the graffiti workshop too. Only thing I would change is having slightly longer in the workshop, as our tour ran over time. But it was a really great afternoon which I'd recommend to Londoners and tourists alike.
Ran Achiron • Sep 2023
We had an outstanding knowledge guide
We learned about street art and made a piece of our art!
Highly recommend!
Danielle Perez • Mar 2023
3 ClassBento workshops attended • 2 reviews
Amazing! I learnt so much from Gary not only about techniques, styles but also history of the East end of London, and the community he cares so much about. It's a brilliant tour, and the workshop after the tour was the most relaxing and fun thing to do on a miserable freezing Monday.
It's different from everything I have done and I cannot recommend it enough. I have recommended to all my friends including for Team building activities
Really one of the most interesting and fun things I did since I have been in London (25 years) I will do it again with friends and family visiting from abroad.
Theresa Wollschlager • Aug 2022
The tour was great, we learned a lot about the street art and had a chance to try it out. Our guide was very knowledgeable and friendly.
Jemma Naumann • Feb 2022
9 ClassBento workshops attended • 4 reviews
Such a great day! Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable, and the tour was well structured and interesting. I really loved getting to make my own stencil and spray paint it onto a wall in the workshop.
Hadeel Bugshan • Oct 2021
3 ClassBento workshops attended • 3 reviews
The class wa very informative the teacher was friendly and shared lots of information. I enjoyed it
Mayssam Ghobril • Sep 2021
I enjoyed the tour and listening to what the teacher had to say but it’s A bit overpriced and not very well paced and a bit repetitive at the end.
Teacher's response
Thank you for taking the time to review our activity. We're pleased that you enjoyed the tour and we have taken your feedback on board. As the original street art tour provider in East London, and the only company to offer indoor spray painting workshops, our prices reflect our unique contribution to the industry. Our teachers begin by teaching the basics of spray painting and are always happy to teach more advanced techniques for our customers that really want to experiment! With a large array of paint colours and stencils, we are able to fully encourage our customers' creativity.
