Mysterious street artist Banksy was once embroiled in a fascinating graffiti feud that reportedly led to him being slapped in a London boozer.
The identity of the Bristolian phantom has been front and centre in recent days after it was reported by the Daily Mail that a Banksy was involved in a High Court case. That case involved the name of Robin Gunningham, who was previously suspected of being the graffiti artist, as a defendant in a defamation hearing. The co-defendant is Pest Control Ltd, a company Banksy is understood to have established to help sell his art.
But while the identity of the mythical mural maker is still far from confirmed in the public domain, past years have seen real-life interactions with a flesh-and-bones human being. Perhaps most notorious of those, was a kerfuffle he is alleged to have had with another big name in the graffiti game, the late King Robbo.
READ MORE: Banksy could finally be unmasked as elusive graffiti artist is named in court battle
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Standing at six foot eight inches, King Robbo was a big name in the London graffiti scene in the 1980s and 1990s. His beef with Banksy started in 2009 when the faceless phantom allegedly painted over his 1985 “Robbo Incorporated” tag on Regents Canal. It was below the British Transport Police headquarters and was said to have been the oldest piece of graffiti in the capital.
Banksy painted a worker over it renewing a long-running beef – but it wasn’t the first time the pair are rumoured to have come into contact with one another. Reports claim they ran into one another in a bar in London in the 1990s, where Robbo, real name John Robertson, claimed that Banksy “dismissed” him. That alleged dismissal led to Robbo giving Banksy a slap.
The 2009 beef escalated when Robbo returned to the Regents Canal tag and edited it so it looked like the worker was saying “King Robbo”. This in turn led Banksy to return and paint the letters F, U and C ahead of the words.
Robbo rose to prominence in the 1980s when he became a leading figure in the trend of tagging tube trains, an activity that had already gained popularity in the US. He and Banksy’s beef came to an end in 2011 after an incident at King’s Cross left him in a vegetative state from falling down a flight of stairs. No foul play was suspected by cops, but the legendary artist died three years later.
The tension between them would continue after the death of Robbo, with various Banksy tags being tagged with "Team Robbo".
Following the beef, a mural honouring Robbo was painted in Camden. This too was added to by Banksy, but this time he painted a black and white version of the original with a crown and a can of spray paint with a hazard symbol flame above it, marking the end of the rivalry.
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