New show at KK Outlet celebrates Shit London is all its grimy glory

One of the worst things about lazy travel writing is its tendency to textually airbrush cities, removing all nuance to create unrealistic, unrecognisable portraits of places. Thankfully Shit London is the ultimate corrective to this kind of oversimplification, not just acknowledging the city’s grimier, crueller and less desirable bits but positively celebrating them.

A new show opened last night at London’s KK Outlet brings together some of the best of the Shit London blog from grim locales and fear-mongering headlines to angry and misspelled signs and it’s a perfect antidote to the season of goodwill to all men. “There are so many unintenionally amusing things around the city if you just choose to notice them,” says founder Patrick Dalton and every year he gives out awards for some of the best/worst images submitted.

And what’s especially nice is that the whole thing doesn’t take itself too seriously, with the curators admitting you can either take Shit London as “vernacular photography in its purest form…a form of social commentary” or “a bit of a laugh.”

Shit London runs until December 22.