In SE1 there is some faded graffiti probably from the 70s which has never been erased. I notice one every time I descend the steps from Southwark Bridge. Near the the bottom step it says, IRA. Everytime I see it I think to myself I wish I had a flet tip so i could add 'Gershwin'. Not for any reason, it just seems funny.
It's a bit surprising that it's been there that long and the local council has done nothing about it over the years. But I guess that part of SE1 was a no go area until a few years ago so in a way it's only been really visible for that long.
The other day I noticed another piece of graffiti just further down the road. I've never realy noticed it before because cars or rubbich normally distract from it. This piece of graffiti is on a corporate building. It says, NF White Power. Now that I see it I am shocked by it. I feel sick that the people who own the building never cleaned it off. I suspect that the company's management must, on some level, agree with the ideas of the National Front and white supremicists or they would erase it.
But I realise that unless you are personally attacked by the sentiments in the graffiti, you understand it as old and irrelevent - like how I feel about the IRA graffiti. I would feel differently about it if I was an Northern Irish Protetstant or if someone in my family had been killed by the IRA.
I still feel menaced by the NF graffiti when I walk past it, but I try to remind myself that the owners of the building probabaly just think its irrelevent.