A breeze of excitement has hit Croydon since the world-renowned artist Banksy opened a pop-up exhibition on the corner of Church Street and Frith Road in the town centre in the early hours of the 1st of October.

Banksy is an anonymous England-based street artist, his work often uses dark humour to explore social and political issues. His satirical street art has been appearing since the 1990s, often overnight.

The anonymous artist, whose work sells for millions of pounds, recently took over a closed-down carpet shop in Croydon and filled it with a “range of impractical, bizarre and offensive merchandise”.

Crowds quickly started to gather on Tuesday morning after the art installations were soon recognised as Banksy’s.

Banksy soon confirmed via Instagram that the installation was his: "This showroom is for display purposes only. I'm opening a shop today (although the doors don't actually open). It's in Croydon. Probably best viewed at night."

The exhibition was held within a closed shop labelled Gross Domestic Product, although the shop’s doors could never open, art lovers are being given the chance to get their hands on the items inside the shop online.

The stab-and-bullet-proof vest Banksy created for Croydon-born rapper Stormzy to wear during his performance at this year's Glastonbury festival is featured in one of the shop's five windows. Other works include, a cradle surrounded by CCTV and a model of cereal box cartoon character Tony the Tiger re-imagined as a rug and a tombstone with the inscription "You have reached your destination".

Mr Moyle, a local and huge fan of Banksy's work, said: "Obviously a lot of it is political. One window focused on economy, one on the police - Stormzy's stab vest is in there”.

Over the past fortnight the art stunt has drawn thousands of new visitors to Croydon town centre, as well as many locals, with barely a moment of the day or night without people stopping to take in the artworks. Oliver Lewis, Croydon council’s cabinet member for culture, leisure and sport, said: “It’s really exciting, there’s a lot of people out here generating a lot of interest.

Banksy, whose identity is a closely guarded secret, revealed he set up the shop for “possibly the least poetic reason to ever make some art” after taking legal advice during a trademark dispute with a greetings-card company. The street artist was advised to sell his own merchandise to prevent his trademark being used by someone else under EU law, and as a result opened the store.

It has also been explained that all proceeds will go towards funding a new migrant rescue boat. “The proceeds from these products will go towards buying a new migrant rescue boat to replace the one confiscated by Italian authorities,” Banksy said.

Although the store was closed in the early hours of the morning on October 15th, it is clear that the arrival of the world-renowned artist to Croydon caused a huge buzz to the borough and its art community that should live on.

-Shania McNally, Reigate College