Two Banksy artworks appear at Centre Point tower and Bayswater

Elusive street artist Banksy has confirmed he is behind a new mural that has appeared in Bayswater, west London.

The image depicts two children lying on the ground dressed in wellington boots, coats and winter bobble hats, one of them pointing upwards towards the sky.

It has been painted on to a wall above a row of garages on Queen’s Mews and was first spotted on Monday.

The BBC understands Banksy is also responsible for an identical mural that appeared outside the Centre Point tower in central London on Friday, although his representatives have only confirmed the Bayswater work as his.

The artist, whose identity is not publicly known, announced his new work by posting an image to his Instagram account on Monday afternoon.

Speaking about the Centre Point mural, artist Daniel Lloyd-Morgan told the BBC he believed the location was chosen to make a point about child homelessness.

“Everybody is having a good time but there are a lot of children who are not having a good time at Christmas,” he said.

Mr Lloyd-Morgan said that people walking past the artwork were “ignoring it”, adding: “It’s a busy area. Quite poignant that people aren’t stopping. They walk past homeless people and they don’t see them lying on the street.

“It’s kind of like they’re stargazing,” he said. “It’s quite fitting that the kids are pointing up like they’re looking at the North Star.”

Banksy enthusiast Jason Tomkins, said he also believed it was a “clear statement on homelessness”.

The Centre Point tower, at 101-103 New Oxford Street, has been a historic focal point for housing protests.

Originally built as an office block in 1963, the Centre Point tower next to Tottenham Court Road underground station, remained unoccupied for over a decade, angering social justice campaigners.

The homelessness charity Centrepoint was named as a response to the building by founder Rev Ken Leech, who described the tower as “an affront to the homeless”.

The block has since been converted into multimillion-pound luxury flats.

Banksy has not commented on the relevance of the location for either of the new works.

Mr Tomkins said he believed the artwork depicted the same character as one of Banksy’s previous works.

“In 2018 he painted in Port Talbot, and the little boy is identical to child that has been painted here,” he said.

“This is quite unusual for him to use the same little boy again, because he has never done that.”

The Centre Point piece follows Banksy’s September mural in London, which showed a protester lying on the ground holding a blood-spattered placard while a judge, in a wig and gown, loomed over him, wielding a gavel.

It was scrubbed off the Queen’s Building, in the Royal Courts of Justice complex days after it appeared.