So notorious is 10Foot that when he was arrested several years ago, a police officer asked for his autograph. That’s according to him, anyway, but it’s not entirely far-fetched – his name as London’s most prolific graffiti artist has seen him approached by fashion brands and music labels (but he always turns them down). 

10Foot’s tag is on bridges, overpasses, shutters, windows, bus stops and all over London’s network of side-tracks and train carriages — sometimes in elaborate fonts, other times as quick scrawls. Partly key to his success is quite literally the maintenance keys he’s nabbed from rail control rooms, giving him access to tunnels. Well there’s that, and the fact that he’s very tall. “I’m just called 10Foot cos I was always really tall,” he explained in an interview with the Financial Times.

His antics have earned him a substantial criminal record. He’s been convicted for committing over £100,000 in criminal damage and jailed for 26 months. He also claims never to pay for his own paint — instead he steals it (Wickes is his shop of choice). Jail time hasn’t stopped him, though, and he’s still active.

Originally from Melbourne, 2Rise moved to London over 10 years ago for graffiti, (or “graf” – as he calls it). “I came here on holiday and was like right this is sick,” he said in a Graffiti Kings YouTube video. He describes graffiti as “the destructive side of [himself]”, coming hand in hand with drinking and going out. He often finds himself in chases, which he enjoys, claiming they’re “one of the more exciting parts about graf”.  

2Rise is known for being quick. “I paint better and have more fun when I paint a bit quicker. If you try too hard at anything it comes out shit,” he says. And his style reflects this: “I enjoy fat caps, and I enjoy long lines” he explains. “I enjoy that more than fiddling around with more detailed stuff”. Amongst his influences he cites Tizer, Zomby and Teach, with Tizer (see below) being someone who has actively “pushed” him to advance his style.

Outside of talking about style, he’s critical of the way that graffiti is policed compared to other crimes. “In London the government is putting people in jail longer for graf than for all sorts of mad offences. People are getting in knife fights, sexual assault, acid attacks, billionaire tax evasion bullshit, embezzlement, all of that. And then there’s some dude who’s pumped a couple of panels and they’re like boom, that's two years”.

Tizer has been active on the London scene since the late 80s, having moved to the UK as a child from Omaha in Nebraska. In his early days, Tizer says he was influenced by the hip-hop movement and some of the illegal murals in Brixton, but he also says he studied calligraphy and ancient writing to develop his tags. 

The name Tizer is based on an old-school fizzy drink made by Barr, which had the tagline “the great British pop”. It’s not really a thing anymore, but you can still buy it on Amazon. Explaining the name, he said: “I chose Tizer because it’s a British drink and I’m a British graffiti writer, and I wanted people to realise that I was a British graffiti writer even though I don't sound like I’m from here.” 

There’s very little information out there about Fatso, but he is rumoured to work in a trio alongside 10Foot and Jason. “Saw all three of them doing the underpass outside Peckhamplex on Monday as it goes”, said someone on Reddit.

Panik is not only known for his own art but for being one of the co-founders of ATG, a.k.a. The Antagonizers, which is one of the most notorious graffiti crews in the country. He set up the group in 2001 with friends who were loosely connected through selling weed and shared the common goal of pushing the graffiti scene forward north of the river. 

“ATG was and always will be a lot about partying as well as painting which is how we spread so quickly. We would go to random parties all over the city and then after when we were all charged up we would climb all over shit, bombing our way home,” he said.

He’s also talked about graffiti as an addiction. “If you’re in it for the long haul then it is all about how to tame that addiction in a way that allows you to get on with the rest of your life,” he says. He didn’t always stick to painting in the streets, though. He also displayed his work in gallery shows, such as a solo one at Pure Evil Gallery that he was interviewed about in 2010.

Unfortunately Lone and the following three taggers — Heato, Diet, and T32 — are true unknown quantities. Try as we might, the Spy couldn’t find anything about them online — perhaps a sign of how closely they guard their identities. Still, from the data we’ve gathered, they’re amongst the top ten in the city, each with their own stomping grounds.

Described by some as graffiti “royalty”, Zomby has been active on the scene since 1986. He played a pivotal role in one of London’s most notorious graffiti crews, DDS (or Diabolical Dubstars), which is now said to have several different chapters and hundreds of members, including 10Foot amongst others.

It’s not surprising, then, that Zomby was one of the names on display when the Saatchi Gallery put on an exhibition dedicated to worldwide graffiti earlier this year. Speaking to the Face magazine at the event, he commented on how graffiti has changed: “Back in the ​‘80s and ​‘90s, people thought: ​This is just a fad, and it will just die out. They’re just vandals.”

Now, he says, graffiti artists are getting recognition via collaborations with brands. “Graffiti writers and the culture are getting recognition. The up [prolific] writers are like heroes. It gives the clothing brands a little boost, and it gives us money and gets our work out there. A win-win for both parties…”