Beyond the Stokes Croft street art hub, Bristol's Banksy trail takes in Park Street, the Harbourside and two of the city's free museums, and can be walked in an afternoon. Several original pieces remain in place outdoors, while others have been moved indoors for conservation, including the Grim Reaper, now on permanent display at M Shed, and the Paint-Pot Angel, on display at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, both free to visit.
| Work | Location | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Well Hung Lover | Frogmore Street | Outdoors, original site, some vandalism damage |
| Girl with a Pierced Eardrum | Hanover Place, Spike Island | Outdoors, original site, partially defaced |
| Grim Reaper | M Shed, Harbourside | Indoors, moved from the Thekla in 2014 |
| Paint-Pot Angel | Bristol Museum & Art Gallery | Indoors, on display since 2009 |
| Mobile Lovers | Formerly Easton | Removed and sold to a private collector, not on public display |
Well Hung Lover, Frogmore Street
Painted in 2006 on the side wall of what was then the Brook Sexual Health Clinic, Well Hung Lover shows a naked man hanging from a windowsill while a suspicious husband looks out of a nearby window. It became the first piece of Banksy street art in the UK to be given retrospective permission by a council, after Bristol City Council polled residents and found the large majority in favour of keeping it. It's still on the wall on Frogmore Street, best viewed from the Park Street bridge above, though it has been vandalised more than once over the years, including with paintball pellets and further reported damage in early 2026, so parts of the original image are no longer as crisp as in older photographs.
Girl with a Pierced Eardrum, Hanover Place
A short walk from the Harbourside on Spike Island, this 2014 piece reworks Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, replacing the pearl earring with an existing security alarm box on the wall. It appeared overnight and was partially defaced with black paint within days, damage that's still visible, and in 2020 someone added a fabric face mask to the girl's face as a nod to the Covid pandemic; that addition has stayed too, layering onto the original artwork's history. It's on a building at the Albion Dockyard, down a small alley off Hanover Place, and remains publicly visible at all times.
The Grim Reaper, now at M Shed
This one won't be found on a wall. Banksy originally painted the Grim Reaper directly onto the steel hull of the Thekla, the ship and nightclub moored in the harbour, around 2003. By 2014 the piece had deteriorated badly from exposure to the weather, and while the Thekla was in dry dock that year, its owners had the panel cut from the hull and loaned it to Bristol's museums for conservation and display. It's been on permanent display at M Shed, on the harbourside, since 2015, positioned outside the Bristol Life gallery. M Shed is free to enter and open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm.
Paint-Pot Angel and more at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery on Queens Road, Clifton, holds the Paint-Pot Angel, a sculpture Banksy left behind after his record-breaking 2009 exhibition, Banksy versus Bristol Museum, and it has stayed on display in the entrance hall ever since. The museum also holds Jerusalem, a sculpture Banksy modified with another artist, and has previously exhibited loaned Banksy works such as Devolved Parliament. Entry to the museum is free, and it's open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm, closed Mondays. It's an easy add-on to the outdoor trail, especially combined with the full guide to Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, which covers the rest of the collection.
Works that have disappeared
Not everything painted by Banksy in Bristol is still visible. Mobile Lovers, which appeared on a boarded-up doorway next to the Broad Plain Boys' Club in Easton in 2014, was removed by the club and later sold at auction to a private collector, with the proceeds going to keep the youth club running; it isn't on public display. If you come across other Banksy-attributed pieces referenced in older guides around the city, it's worth checking their current status before planning a special trip, since street art is vulnerable to weather, redevelopment and vandalism in a way museum pieces aren't.
Planning your route
A sensible order is to start on Park Street for Well Hung Lover, walk down to the Harbourside for Girl with a Pierced Eardrum and M Shed's Grim Reaper, then finish at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery in Clifton, or reverse it depending on where you're staying. This route is entirely separate from the Stokes Croft and Nelson Street street art scene, covered in our guide to Stokes Croft, which has its own concentration of large-scale murals including Banksy's Mild Mild West; combine the two if you want a fuller day of Bristol street art, or see our wider guide to Bristol street art for context on the scene beyond Banksy specifically.