COCKTAIL RAT

A Seaside Holiday

During Banksy’s A Great British Spraycation in August 2021, a familiar figure appeared on the sea wall beside North Beach in Lowestoft. A rat reclines comfortably in a deckchair beneath a small parasol, raising a cocktail glass as though enjoying a traditional British seaside holiday. The work was documented in place by 8 August and confirmed by Banksy, together with the other East Anglian interventions, on 13 August.

The image was painted on the side of the Links Road sea wall beside the North Beach car park. As throughout Spraycation, Banksy used the existing environment as part of the composition. Directly above the rat is a real overflow pipe, positioned so that anything dripping from it would fall directly into the waiting cocktail glass.

The joke is deliberately simple. From a distance, the rat appears to be enjoying the pleasures of a summer holiday; on closer inspection, its refreshing drink is being supplied by whatever happens to emerge from a drain.

Banksy on Holiday

Rats have populated Banksy’s work since the beginning of his career, usually occupying the overlooked spaces of the city and surviving beneath the structures created by humans. In Lowestoft, however, the rat has apparently abandoned revolution for recreation. It lounges beneath an umbrella with all the contentment of a holidaymaker who has finally reached the seaside.

The image fits the deliberately lighter character of A Great British Spraycation. Created during the second summer of the Covid-19 pandemic, when international travel remained complicated and many Britons were holidaying at home, the project adopted the form of Banksy’s own eccentric coastal road trip. His accompanying film shows the artist travelling through East Anglia in a camper van, carrying spray cans in a cooler and creating works among the ordinary architecture of British seaside towns.

The film also reveals how the Lowestoft rat was made. Banksy is shown walking away carrying a rolled-up windbreak, apparently used to conceal his activity while he worked in daylight on the exposed seafront. The disguise itself becomes part of the joke: on a British beach, a man sheltering behind a windbreak attracts almost no attention.

A Short-Lived Holiday

The rat's holiday did not remain peaceful for long. During the night of 14–15 August, only days after Banksy had confirmed the Spraycation works, someone covered much of the mural with white paint. Security patrols employed by East Suffolk Council reportedly interrupted the vandal while the damage was taking place, and the incident was referred to police. The council had already ordered protective materials for Banksy’s local works and subsequently consulted specialists about the possibility of restoration.

The episode added another layer to an otherwise modest seaside joke. Banksy’s rat had found the perfect place to spend its summer holiday—reclining beside the North Sea, cocktail raised beneath a leaking pipe.

Like many British seaside holidays, it was enjoyable while it lasted.