Woodstock Street Art

Woodstock is an old working-class suburb between the city and the harbour, and from around 2010 its walls filled with large murals - much of it through the International Public Art Festival, which brings local and visiting artists to paint each February. The work is genuinely good and includes pieces by artists with international reputations. The complication is what came with it: Woodstock has gentrified fast, with galleries, design studios and coffee shops arriving alongside rising rents, and long-standing residents have been displaced through evictions and sales in a suburb that was one of the few racially mixed areas to survive apartheid-era removals. Murals painted on the walls of buildings whose tenants are being pushed out is a tension the better walking tours address directly, usually run by guides from the area. Wandering alone is possible but a guide adds both context and safety.

What you actually see

• The mural density - large works across an old industrial and residential suburb.
• The February festival - the public art event that produced much of the work.
• The gentrification argument - rising rents and evictions alongside the paintings.
• The mixed-area history - one of the few suburbs that escaped apartheid-era removals.

When to go

All year; February for the festival painting. Two to three hours, ideally with a guide.

Honest expectations

Petty crime is a real consideration - walk with a guide or in company, and not with visible valuables. Murals are repainted and lost regularly, so specific works may be gone. The gentrification story is uncomfortable and central rather than a footnote.

Nearby

The Old Biscuit Mill market is in Woodstock; the city centre is west.