Fifth Banksy artwork of week depicts pelicans pinching fish from chip shop

Banksy has unveiled an artwork of pelicans pinching fish from a London chip shop sign as the fifth piece in what appears to be an animal-themed series.

It comes after his fourth art piece of the week, a wolf howling on a satellite dish, was removed on Thursday afternoon less than an hour after it was unveiled online by the street artist.

The new artwork is on Bonners Fish Bar in Walthamstow, and sees one bird stooping down to scoop up a fish on the takeaway’s sign, while another is tossing one in the air.

Local Labour MP Stella Creasy has praised the new work, located on the fish and chip shop in Northcote Road, in her constituency.

She said: “Walthamstow. Where even our chippy is just a bit cooler than everyone else’s.

“Even if this isn’t a Banksy it’s brill and the chips there are magic, though the owner’s on holiday at moment so you will have to wait to confirm that yourself.

“So thank you whoever added this bit of magic to our street art today.”

The first piece of graffiti in Banksy’s new animal-themed series, which was unveiled on Monday, is based near Kew Bridge in south-west London and shows a goat with rocks falling down below it, just above where a CCTV camera is pointed.

On Tuesday, the artist added another design to the collection: silhouettes of two elephants with their trunks stretched toward each other on the side of a building near Chelsea.

This was followed by a trio of monkeys looking as though they were swinging underneath a bridge over Brick Lane, near a vintage clothing shop in the popular east London market street, not far from Shoreditch High Street.

On Thursday, Banksy’s howling wolf artwork in Peckham, south-east London, was removed by three men, according to a witness who told the PA news agency that he filmed them, which led to one of them throwing his phone on a roof.

“It’s a great shame we can’t have nice things and it’s a shame it couldn’t have lasted more than an hour,” he said.

A statement from the Metropolitan Police said: “We were called to reports of a stolen satellite dish containing artwork at 1.52pm on Thursday August 8 in Rye Lane, Peckham.

“There have been no arrests. Inquiries continue.”

A spokesperson for Banksy confirmed to PA that the artist is neither connected to nor endorses the theft, and added that they have “no knowledge as to the dish’s current whereabouts”.

Another Peckham-based art piece created by Banksy was removed within an hour of it being confirmed as authentic in December 2023.

Witnesses saw the artwork, a stop sign covered with three aircraft said to resemble military drones, being removed by a man with bolt cutters.

The street artist, whose identity is unknown but widely speculated on, recently faced criticism from the then home secretary James Cleverly who said artwork he created for Glastonbury Festival was “trivialising” small boats crossings and “vile”.

The artist had confirmed he was the person behind an inflatable boat filled with migrant dummies which had been crowdsurfed at the music festival in June, during performances by Bristol indie punk band Idles and rapper Little Simz.