The owner of Banksy’s old studios has warned that the rooms could be converted into offices as early as 2017.
"The end of Mother Studios"
Joanna Hughes, who welcomed the street artist to her studios in the early noughties, says she will be priced out by the Stratford business boom.
“They’re likely to turn it into a new block of offices, there’s nothing to stop it. That’ll probably be the end of Mother Studios,” Ms Hughes told the Hackney Post.
The street artist moved to the studio in 2003, before going on to achieve worldwide fame.
READ MORE: Rare signed Banksy prints to be flogged by Hackney studio
Ms Hughes described the day she first met young Banksy:
“When he turned up, he turned up with one of his mates in a white van with all the spray paints. I asked him, “Are you some kind of graffiti artist then?”, and he just replied, 'Yeah, something like that'.”
"Don't f***ing do that"
“He was upstairs in the far corner, and when he moved out, I asked him to repaint the far walls. I didn’t want to sell them, but I had to ask anyway.
“I came in one morning to find he’d done stencils in the gents toilets! I was like, “Don’t f***ing do that, we’ll get in trouble with the landlord!””
Ms Hughes says that although many artists in Hackney know Banksy’s identity, none will reveal it to the press.
“One of them got it right a while ago, but obviously I can’t say.”The post Banksy’s old studios facing bleak future appeared first on Hackney Post.