It isn’t every day that you get to see the work of a famous yet very mysterious artist, but yesterday turned out to be rather cool. It had already been quite a long day, trundling along the canals of North-East London, but at about five last night I got a text from my mum telling me that some kind of artwork by Banksy had appeared in Charlton, up by the Thames Barrier. At the time I was on my way home, feeling rather hungry and slightly hot; I just wanted to head to Tesco for supplies, then come home. Yet, after a bite to eat, my curiosity rekindled, so I set off on the bus to Charlton to see what I could.

That area of Charlton by the Thames is a bit rough; it has yet to see the redevelopment other stretches of the riverside have, although glimpses of it can be found here and there. Getting down there was easy enough for me, but finding the specific road Mum had mentioned took a bit of time. When I did, though, I saw a crowd had formed opposite a wall of an old abandoned warehouse. By the wall was a broken down car which clearly hadn’t moved in ages. On the wall, however, someone had painted a huge rhinoceros, one set of hooves on top of the car to look like it was mounting the vehicle. This was clearly the work of the mysterious Banksy.

I spent a few minutes there, looking at the artwork with the growing crowd around it. What could it mean? What could this Banksy dude be trying to tell us? What would a rhinoceros be doing in Charlton? I had no idea, so after a brief while looking at the artwork, I decided it was time to head home for dinner.

I hadn’t given much thought to Banksy before yesterday evening, but it is pretty weird when you think about it: these murals suddenly appear, seemingly instantaneously, in all kinds of places. Nobody sees them being created apparently, but they just seem to appear. We don’t know who creates them except by a single anonymous name. I find this phenomenon very strange, and will now look into it a bit more. For starters, this morning I’ll go to Charlton again, to check that the rhinoceros is still there.