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For five years, the Shoreditch Art Wall has been a platform for art. Artists and organisations from all over the world, capitalising on the heavy footfall and traffic of Shoreditch High Street, have made use of this blank canvas-for-hire. It's been used to raise millions for charity. Romantic types have even had marriage proposals painted across it for their partners to see. But now this stretch of brick's artistic days might be numbered.
Anyone who's passed through the area lately can't have missed all the construction that's under way. It's a multi-million pound development scheme that will erect a complex of luxury apartments and retail spaces called The Stage, in tribute to the Elizabethan theatre The Curtain, which sat on the site and was used by Shakespeare's company (we're positive the Bard would approve: everyone knows he was a huge fan of penthouses and boutiques).
The development scheme has recently claimed the nearby blind shop Peter the Pleater, which had been there for over 30 years until its eviction by Hackney Council at the end of last year.
It's the council who owns the wall, but the developers Galliard Homes will take control of it from March – and it's uncertain what will become of it from then. In an area that's experienced dizzying change in the last few years, here's yet another east London familiar whose fate hangs in the balance.
In other news, an artist is bringing a bouncy castle to London. And yes, you can jump on it.