London just got a new Banksy mural – just in time for Christmas

Pedestrians walk past a mural on the side of a wall, alleged by local media to have been created by street artist Banksy, in the Tottenham Court Road area of central London on December 22, 2025. (Photo by CARLOS JASSO / AFP via Getty Images)

(Image credit: Banksy, photo by CARLOS JASSO / AFP via Getty Images)

Ah, London: the home of great art, culture, theatre, pubs, and one of the only places you can get annoyed at people walking too quickly and too slowly simultaneously. It’s also a place that knows how to get into the festive spirit at this time of year, and now, it’s just got extra special, thanks to Banksy.

A new Banksy mural has appeared in west London, showing two children lying down and looking at the sky.

The artist revealed he was behind the artwork above a row of garages on Queen’s Mews in Bayswater, confirming it via Instagram, where he posted a photo of it on his account on Monday afternoon.

A man walks beneath a new Banksy artwork on December 22, 2025 in London, England. This afternoon, the renowned street artist Bansky posted to his Instagram account an image of the mural taken on a prior night, with the stargazing subjects pointing to the light atop of a construction crane. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

It might not be the only one, though, as a second, identical artwork appeared outside the Centre Point tower in central London last Friday, although Banksy (nor his representatives) have not confirmed if it's one of his yet.

Like most of Banksy’s artworks, the piece is considered to be a political statement, this time shining a spotlight on the socio-economic state of the UK. This mural in particular is speculated to be making a statement about homelessness, and specifically child homelessness, as the Centre Point tower has long been a symbol of the homelessness crisis. The building was left empty for more than a decade after being completed in 1966. The name of the homelessness charity Centrepoint was inspired by the tower, with its founder, Rev Ken Leech, calling the building “an affront to the homeless”. In true modern cost-of-living-crisis London style, the block is now multimillion-pound flats.

The two children on the mural look as though they are stargazing, which artist Daniel Lloyd-Morgan has said is “fitting” when chatting to the BBC. “There are a lot of children who are not having a good time at Christmas,” he reflected. "Despite being a busy area, many people have not stopped to look at it, ignoring it.”[It’s] Quite poignant that people aren’t stopping,” Lloyd-Morgan reflected. “They walk past homeless people, and they don’t see them lying on the street.”

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Hermione Blandford is the Content Editor for Shortlist’s social media which means you can usually find her scrolling through Instagram and calling it work, or stopping random people in the street and accosting them with a mini mic. She has previously worked in food and drink PR for brands including Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray, Gordon's, The Singleton, Lagavulin and Don Julio which means she is a self confessed expert in spicy margaritas and pints, regularly popping into the pub in the name of research.

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