Braithwaite Street — David Speed's Neon Portraits

The vibrant street art on Braithwaite Street in Shoreditch, London, features signature neon portraits by David Speed created using an under-painting technique that makes paint glow like electric light. Trained as a teacher in the early 2000s, Speed accidentally invented his tone-free neon style in 2018. During the 2020 lockdown, he created nearly 100 neon works across London and hid 1,000 free hand-finished skull prints for locals to find.

London · from the walk “Walls That Talk: Shoreditch Street Art & Urban Creativity” · Generated

Open the walk

Braithwaite Street, London E1 6QA

How does street artist David Speed make his neon portraits on Braithwaite Street glow?

Take a look at the wall in front of you. See those faces glowing in electric pink and red, almost pulsing off the brickwork? That unmistakable neon haze is the signature of David Speed... one of the most recognizable street artists in all of East London.

Here's what makes his story so unusual. In the early two thousands, David was training to become a primary school teacher while simultaneously running a largely illegal graffiti career. He once received a C grade in art at school. Nobody told him he had talent. Nobody pointed him toward art as a career. But he kept painting... and painting... and painting.

Then came his Secret technique. He stumbled upon the neon style completely by accident in twenty eighteen while attempting to paint a realistic portrait, using neon paint despite its total lack of tone. So how do you create depth and shadow with paint that has NO tone at all? He under-paints with darker colors where he wants shadow and lighter colors where he wants it to pop, creating tone where there technically Isn'T any. Then a splash of white on top creates that extraordinary illusion of light radiating from within.

But here's the part most people don't know. David leads a double life... he's also Director of a Shoreditch-based commercial spray-painting outfit called Graffiti Life. When Lockdown hit in twenty twenty, demand for commercial work dried up... but suddenly, boarded-up shopfronts appeared Everywhere as businesses feared the worst. Empty plywood. Blank walls. An accidental canvas stretching across the entire neighborhood. David painted nearly a Hundred neon pieces, many on a rooftop lift shaft visible from his studio, just ten minutes' walk from his house.

And then he did something extraordinary. He hid one thousand original hand-finished skull prints all around London, dropping hints on social media, sending people into a crazed dash to find them. He spent hundreds of hours finishing each print by hand... and then just Gave them away. People were making friends through the treasure hunt, and he called those stories beautiful to hear.

Today, David Speed is one of the few street artists, alongside Banksy, whose work is instantly recognized even by people seeing Shoreditch street art for the very first time. His work explores themes of identity, connection, and untold stories... and every portrait you see on this wall is a quiet love letter, painted in light, to the people who make this neighborhood breathe.

Nearby stories