New Inn Yard — The UK's Biggest Street Art Mural

The Connectivity Matters mural on New Inn Yard in London is the United Kingdom's largest street art mural, covering 1,500 square metres of a working data centre. Curated by Global Street Art in 2018, the 115-metre-long artwork used 500 spray paint cans across eight artist sections. The site is also where James Burbage built England's first permanent theatre in 1576, whose timbers were later used for the Globe.

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

Open the walk

New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EY

How large is the Connectivity Matters street art mural on New Inn Yard in London?

Look around you. This enormous, colourful building stretching down New Inn Yard and King John Court... this is home to the largest street art mural in the United Kingdom. It's painted on several sides of one building, eight sections in all, each produced by a different pair of artists, and all loosely based around the theme of "connectivity."

The mural is called Connectivity Matters. It was curated by Global Street Art for Colt Technology, started in April twenty eighteen and completed that August. And the numbers are staggering. The mural stretches about a hundred and fifteen metres along its base and stands thirteen metres tall, covering a surface area of almost fifteen hundred square metres. Two hundred and fifty litres of black emulsion were used as background, and over five hundred cans of spray paint went into the painting.

Now, each section tells its own story of connection. The first duo, Autone and Neist, created a colourful abstraction inspired by transport maps, specifically citing London Underground's own. Lovepusher and Mister Cenz painted a piece called "Future," blending a sci-fi style crystal ball with a modern figure holding connectivity literally in the palm of her hand. And look for the woodland section... There, Ed Hicks and Doctor Zadok depicted the fungal mycelium network, an organic information superhighway that actually connects plants, trees, and mushrooms across the forest floor. Hidden somewhere in the bark of a tree... if you look carefully, you might spot a funky hip-hop character.

But here's where it gets truly extraordinary. Colt's data centre is located in the heart of Shoreditch, and they commissioned this mural to blend in with the neighbourhood. So behind these magnificent painted walls... servers are humming, data is flowing. Tourists and fashion brands pose in front of it, completely unaware of the mission-critical equipment churning away inside.

Now... take a few steps toward Curtain Road and let your mind travel back over four hundred years. Because This very ground is where English theatre was Born. The Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse built in fifteen seventy-six, was the first permanent theatre built exclusively for theatrical productions in England. It was built by James Burbage, who called it simply "the Theatre" to evoke the idea of a Roman playhouse. In two thousand and eight, archaeologists excavating in New Inn Broadway announced they had found the foundations of a polygonal structure they believed to be the remains of the Theatre's north-eastern corner.

William Shakespeare himself performed and debuted his earliest plays right here. In this first custom-built public theatre, Shakespeare played as an actor, and his first plays were performed... notably Romeo and Juliet and an early version of Hamlet.

And then came one of the most audacious heists in theatre history! On the twenty-eighth of December, fifteen ninety-eight, while the landlord Giles Allen was celebrating Christmas at his country home, carpenter Peter Street, supported by the players and their friends, dismantled the Theatre beam by beam. Court documents reveal they armed themselves with swords, daggers, bills, axes, and other weapons, expecting trouble. The timbers were stored, then ferried across the Thames... and reassembled on the other side of the river as a brand-new playhouse. They called it the Globe.

So stand here for a moment and take it all in. Layers upon layers of creativity... from Shakespeare's wooden stage to fifteen hundred square metres of spray-painted brilliance. Shoreditch was London's first arts district over four centuries ago... and it still is today.

Nearby stories