{"id":575158,"date":"2026-07-30T08:35:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T08:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/575158\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T08:35:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T08:35:27","slug":"photo-feature-fly-posting-posters-and-stickers-on-the-streets-of-brixton-july-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/575158\/","title":{"rendered":"Photo feature: fly-posting, posters and stickers on the streets of Brixton, July 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Fly-posting has been a part of London life since Victorian times, when business owners,\u00a0 theatre promoters and political campaigners employed shady teams to plaster their message on walls and doorways.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

In a Brief History of Fly-posting<\/a>, Alwyn Turner explains how the industry grew:<\/p>\n

At this stage in the mid-19th century, the putting up of posters in Britain was entirely unregulated.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Businesses, theatre companies or individuals who had a message they wanted to see displayed went to one of the professional bill-posters who would paste them up wherever he could.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the trade increased, so too did the competition for the best sites, with disputes settled as often as not by physical violence.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the early-1860s Edward Sheldon, who had taken over a bill-posting business in Leeds from his father-in-law, was so badly beaten in a fight with his rivals, Wood & Holdsworth, over a particular site that, fearing he might actually lose his life in a future conflict, he hit upon a radical idea: he rented the wall from its owner and thereby gained the exclusive right to put posters upon it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thus began the division between paid-for sites and fly-posting, the practice of putting up posters on sites that hadn\u2019t been authorised, an activity that was always of dubious legality at best.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

By the 1970s, the London fly-posting industry was under the iron grip of shadowy characters like Vince Stitt and Terry \u2018the Pill\u2019 Slater, and woe betide any rival gangs who had the audacity to start operating in their area or \u2013 worst of all \u2013 stick their posters on top of their work.<\/p>\n

Even bands who had over-enthusiastically fly-posted their gigs on patches \u2018owned\u2019 by the pro gangs could expect a visit and a strong recommendation that they desist.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Nowadays, social media has made fly-posting less compelling as a promotional tool, although there\u2019s still plenty of examples to be seen on the streets of Brixton.<\/p>\n

In this \u2013 the first of what will become an occasional series \u2013\u00a0 we\u2019ve documented the posters and stickers we\u2019ve seen around Brixton in July 2026.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

A damning local comment on redevelopment plans for Somerleyton Road.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

The few phone boxes left standing in Brixton<\/a> are usually covered in posters put up by professional gangs.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a huge range of issues and events being advertised on this wall next to Marks & Spencer.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

The rise of free AI tools has resulted in more \u2018professional\u2019 looking posters but at the expense of originality \u2013 these two posters look almost identical despite being for two totally unrelated events at opposite ends of London.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

No collection of posters would be complete without something from Benson\u2019s Funfair, although they\u2019ve sadly also succumbed to using AI now.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

This design for a computer repair tech hasn\u2019t changed in decades!<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Posters on top of posters on the old Dogstar frontage.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

A professional fly poster at work in the dead of night. This poster went up in seconds.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

More London history<\/p>\n

Please donate to Brixton BuzzTo ensure editorial independence, Brixton Buzz accepts no advertising, sponsorship or funding. If you\u2019d like to contribute to our running costs, you can donate here<\/a>. Thank you.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fly-posting has been a part of London life since Victorian times, when business owners,\u00a0 theatre promoters and political…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-575158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}