Londoners strolling through the heart of the city this holiday season have been greeted by two new murals—identical in their haunting simplicity—depicting children bundled in winter coats, woolly hats, and wellington boots, lying on the cold ground and gazing skyward. The works, in Banksy’s unmistakable monochrome style, appeared just days before Christmas 2025: one beneath the iconic Centre Point tower near Tottenham Court Road, and the other on a row of garages in Queen’s Mews, Bayswater, a few miles to the west.
This time, the elusive street artist—whose real identity remains one of the art world’s most closely guarded secrets—confirmed his authorship of the Bayswater mural with a post on Instagram on December 22. The image he shared shows the children stargazing next to an overflowing skip, the finger of one child aligning with a red light atop a nearby crane, cleverly evoking the Star of Bethlehem. While Banksy has yet to claim the Centre Point version on his social media, multiple outlets, including the BBC, report that both works are his, and their identical imagery leaves little doubt.
The murals have sparked immediate speculation and interpretation, with many seeing them as a poignant commentary on youth homelessness—especially given their locations and the timing, as the city faces another bitter winter. According to Yahoo News, the Centre Point building is no random canvas. Completed in 1966 at a cost of £5.5 million, it stood empty for nearly a decade as its owner, property tycoon Harry Hyams, refused to lease it by the floor, holding out for a single, high-paying tenant. The building became a symbol of London’s housing crisis and was even dubbed "London’s Empty Skyscraper." In 1974, it was occupied by protesters for two days, culminating in a dramatic standoff with police, injuries, and arrests. The building’s notoriety would eventually inspire the name of the youth homelessness charity Centrepoint, founded in 1969 by Reverend Ken Leech, who called the skyscraper "an affront to the homeless."
Today, Centre Point is home to luxury flats—an irony not lost on those interpreting Banksy’s latest work. As Balbir Kaur Chatrik, Director of Policy and Prevention at Centrepoint, told Yahoo News, "There'll be over 23,000 young people facing homelessness this winter, and many of the indications are that the scale of the youth homelessness crisis will only deepen over the coming months. The piece is a great nod to London's history and a stark reminder of how little has changed—and how much work is left to do before youth homelessness is ended for good." The numbers are stark: more than 13,000 people were recorded sleeping rough in London in 2024, with many more living in unstable, temporary accommodation—often invisible to the wider public.
The timing of the murals, just before Christmas, adds another layer of resonance. As artist Daniel Lloyd-Morgan observed to the BBC, "Everybody is having a good time but there are a lot of children who are not having a good time at Christmas." He noted the poignant reality that many passersby in the busy Tottenham Court Road area were ignoring the mural, much as they might overlook the real homeless children lying on the streets. "It's kind of like they're stargazing," he said, "It's quite fitting that the kids are pointing up like they're looking at the North Star." Banksy enthusiast Jason Tomkins echoed this, describing the work as a "clear statement on homelessness."
For those familiar with Banksy’s oeuvre, the return to human themes marks a shift from his more overtly political work earlier in the year. In September, he painted a mural on the Royal Courts of Justice showing a judge attacking a protester—a piece widely interpreted as a critique of the UK government’s crackdown on activist groups. That mural, like many of his more controversial pieces, was swiftly removed by authorities. The new stargazing murals, by contrast, are quieter but arguably more powerful, focusing attention on society’s most vulnerable at a time when the city’s wealth and poverty are on stark display.
The reaction has been swift and, in some cases, protective. According to Metro, the Bayswater mural was boarded up by workers in high-visibility jackets just hours after Banksy claimed it on Instagram, a move likely intended to prevent vandalism or theft—a fate that has befallen many of his previous works. The Centre Point mural, meanwhile, continues to draw crowds of curious onlookers and art enthusiasts, even as some Londoners hurry past, perhaps too caught up in the holiday rush to notice the children at their feet—real or painted.
Despite Banksy’s global fame—his works have sold for millions at auction and sparked fierce bidding wars—he remains a shadowy figure. He rarely gives interviews, and his identity has never been publicly confirmed, though speculation abounds. His knack for anonymity has allowed him to operate outside the law, as much of his street art is technically considered vandalism. Still, his work continues to provoke, delight, and challenge, often forcing uncomfortable questions about social justice, inequality, and the role of art in public life.
In this case, the message—if not explicitly stated by the artist—seems clear. The choice of Centre Point, with its checkered history as both a symbol of speculative excess and a rallying point for housing activists, underscores the ongoing crisis of homelessness in London. The children’s upward gaze, interpreted by many as stargazing or searching for the North Star, suggests hope, longing, or perhaps the search for a better future. The fact that the murals appeared in two locations—one bustling with Christmas shoppers, the other tucked away in a quieter residential area—hints at the universality of the issue, touching all corners of the city.
Even the act of duplication is unusual for Banksy. As Jason Tomkins noted to the BBC, "This is quite unusual for him to use the same little boy again, because he has never done that." The repetition may be a deliberate choice, emphasizing the scale of the crisis or the idea that homelessness is not confined to one place or one group of people.
As Londoners and visitors debate the meaning and marvel at the artistry, the murals stand as a stark reminder of those left behind in one of the world’s wealthiest cities. Whether these works will prompt lasting change remains to be seen, but for now, Banksy has once again succeeded in making the invisible visible, if only for a fleeting moment.
