Car repairs can take you to the most interesting places. Regular readers of this blog will know that I like to hunt out Street Art. I am also a bit dismissive of the lack of good street art in Plymouth. But coffee and the car drew me to Sawrey Street in Millbay yesterday. With an hour or two to waste we fueled up on coffee and comestibles at YaYa’s

YaYa’s had appeared on an invoice for a gardening event I was helping to plan. As the committee sat around discussing the expenses there was an appreciative mumble of cake reminiscing. YaYa’s apparently make exceedingly good cakes.

From personal experience I can also say they make a great take out coffee for a street wander. Historically Sawrey Street was part of a network of streets that made up the notorious Plymouth red light district. Technology, regeneration and new residential blocks have changed things in this area which has a daytime economy of light industrial use. There are a lot of building sites and artists are encouraged to add Graffiti to the security hoardings that encircle emerging new hotels and apartment blocks.

What I had not realised is that notable British Street artists have been commissioned to place art in the small streets and alleys of Millbay.

The area still has echoes of notoriety and I probably wouldn’t poke around in these tiny back streets at night but that is often where the best Street Art exists. I am just amazed that I have never thought to look here before.

The curious thing about Street Art in Plymouth is that for the most part it stays pristine. Nobody over-sprays a tag or adds a sticker or a stencil of their own. Plymouth does not do Palimpsest Street Art. The worst that probably happens on these works is a drunken pee and they probably do witness whatever remains of the illicit night time economy in this once notorious area.