Abandon Hope first appeared on Shoreditch Bridge in April 2006. It belongs to Banksy’s wider series of slogans stencilled across this bridge at the Hoxton end of Old Street, a location that became an open-air gallery for some of his most memorable early works. The stark message plays on Dante’s famous inscription above the gates of Hell “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here” transposed into the urban setting of East London. Through this bleak yet ironic phrase, Banksy both unsettles and engages passers-by.