A tunnel dubbed Piss Alley and covered in paintings which in another context would be slated as vandalism outperformed the Tate Britain and the National Portrait Gallery over the May bank holiday weekend.

Leake Street, a tunnel in which Banksy and other stencil artists put up their works, attracted over twice as many visitors as the big galleries on tourists' checklists.

About 9,500 people flocked to the tunnel to see images such as the pope holding down his skirt as it billowed in the style of Marilyn Monroe while the Tate Britain attracts on average 4,600 and the National Portrait gallery draws 4,400.

Celebrities' favourite street artist took over the tunnel near London's Waterloo station and turned it over to stencil artists from around the globe.

The results were often stunning, though the wittiest works on display appeared in the area fenced off for members of the public to put their own stencils up.

Some 500 people got involved in the exhibition, notably spraying up a Madonna in a burka, a crow feathering its nest with a battery hen's feathers and a ten pence piece with Gordon Brown's face on it.


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