On my morning commute, I used to regularly go past a building that stood out from the others.

The whole building, which must have been at least 100 years old, was painted head to toe in black. The windows were blocked out,  and there were no markings other than the shop logo, which in a simple white font read “Bull in a China Shop”.

The whole aesthetic was so unusual. It was a completely tidy shop front with no markings or hints as to what it was, and yet it had a name that calmly described something chaotic. 

It wasn’t clear what took place in this building, but as this particular area in Shoreditch was full of restaurants, I presumed it was so (and a quick search on the internet confirmed that). But there wasn’t even a menu by the door, or a chalk board with the chef’s specials for the day. They were so confident in their reputation and word of mouth, that they didn’t need to advertise anything.

After a while though, I was horrified to see that a stencil of a bull had been painted on the shopfront. It was huge and stood out horribly.

The nice clean and tidy aesthetic was gone, and replaced with the spray painted stencil of a bull. We all know what a bull looks like, we don’t need to see it. 

Perhaps they were struggling for money. I guess not many people (including me) had bothered to go. But then, how would the stencil of a bull help?

After a short while, some random graffiti appeared that clearly wasn’t from the restaurant owners. The stencil of the bull had encouraged the public to add their own art and markings, and so it became much like any other building in Shoreditch. I like the graffiti art in Shoreditch, but this building didn’t need it.

Not long after, the restaurant went out of business, and the graffiti had pretty much spread over the entire shop front.

Excuse my clumsy writing, but it seems the bull in a china shop had become the bull outside a china shop with a bottle of spray paint.

Note to self – the next time I see a place that looks intriguing, I should probably go and support it.