North Side Gallery Berlin:
The more honest side of Berlin between graffiti, color and city politics
What is the North Side Gallery in Berlin?
The North Side Gallery is a roughly 500-meter-long legal graffiti and street art space in Park am Nordbahnhof in Berlin-Mitte. Since 2023, writers have been able to legally paint sections of the former rear wall of the Berlin Wall.
Unlike the East Side Gallery, the artworks here aren’t meant to last forever. Pieces disappear, new ones are painted over them, and styles change.
The wall doesn’t work like a museum, but like a real Hall of Fame.
The Berlin locals recommend.
Can you legally spray graffiti at the North Side Gallery?
Yes. Graffiti can be legally sprayed on the designated sections of the North Side Gallery. Following a pilot project, the Mitte district office decided in April 2023 to permanently open up large sections of the former rear wall for legal graffiti.
There are rules: plants and non-designated surfaces are off-limits, rubbish and spray cans must be taken with you, and discriminatory content has no place here.
Facts at a glance
- Location: Park am Nordbahnhof, Berlin-Mitte
- Length: around 500 meters
- Legal since: April 2023
- What: Legal graffiti wall and Hall of Fame
- What makes it special: former rear wall of the Berlin Wall
- Admission: free
- Access: open to the public
- Nearest station: Berlin Nordbahnhof
- Good for: graffiti, street art, photography and anyone who wants to experience Berlin beyond the classic sights
Graffiti terms: What do Tag, Piece, Throw-Up and Co. mean?
First things first:
When you visit the North Side Gallery, you’ll quickly hear terms that are rarely used outside the graffiti scene.
A Writer is a graffiti artist, while a Tag is a writer’s quickly sprayed or written signature.
A Throw-Up is larger than a tag, usually done quickly and often using only a few colors. A Piece is much more elaborate and refers to a more detailed graffiti work with larger letters, colors and details.
Fullcolor Pieces are particularly colorful and elaborate pieces. A Mural is a large-scale wall painting that is often more visual or illustrative in style.
A Cap is the nozzle on a spray can – different caps create different line widths and effects.
A Toy is an inexperienced writer or one who has little respect within the scene, while a King is a writer who has earned major respect through style, technique, experience or their name.
If you’re interested, check out our Street Art and Graffiti blog.
Alright, friends,
what I find most interesting about the North Side Gallery is that it doesn’t even try to be a tourist attraction.
It smells of paint and concrete here. You hear caps clicking, writers stand in front of the wall with their spray cans, while skaters roll past nearby. Somewhere, music is playing from a small Bluetooth speaker, people are sitting on the grass or playing basketball.
And while you’re standing there, the next piece might be taking shape right in front of you.
The city isn’t put on display here. It’s being used.
That’s exactly what I miss at many places that are sold as typical Berlin today.
Where is the North Side Gallery?
The North Side Gallery is located in Park am Nordbahnhof in central Berlin. The legal wall sections stretch along parts of the former rear wall near Gartenstraße, Caroline-Michaelis-Straße and Nordbahnhof.
The place is unusual simply because so many different uses come together here: green spaces, walking paths, basketball, skaters, families, joggers and, right in the middle of it all, one of the city’s most important legal graffiti spaces.
But beneath today’s park lies a completely different history. This was once part of the border zone of the Berlin Wall. Park am Nordbahnhof was created on land that once belonged to the former Nordbahnhof railway station and the former death strip.
Where a border system once separated people, writers now stand and legally paint part of the former rear wall.
Sometimes it doesn’t get much more Berlin than that.
How did the North Side Gallery come about?
The North Side Gallery wasn’t simply planned by the city as a nice street art attraction.
According to Graffiti Lobby Berlin, the group fought for around ten years to have the walls at Nordbahnhof permanently opened up as a Hall of Fame.
In 2021, a two-year pilot project was launched. After that, on April 4, 2023, the Mitte district office officially designated around 500 meters of the former rear wall as a legal graffiti space.
This created Berlin’s largest Hall of Fame.
For Berlin’s graffiti scene, this was important. Legal spaces were – and still are – scarce. If you’re planning a large fullcolor piece, you don’t just need a wall, but also time, paint and preparation. If a piece gets painted over again after just a few hours, you can easily lose €60 or €80 worth of paint and a full day’s work.
A large Hall of Fame creates space to experiment, learn and exchange ideas.
What does “Hall of Fame” mean in graffiti?
A Hall of Fame is a legal wall where writers are officially allowed to spray. It’s also a training ground, a meeting place and a space where new styles and techniques can develop.
It also changes the way people paint.
If you don’t constantly have to worry about getting caught, you can spend more time on your work, prepare the wall and create larger pieces. Graffiti Lobby Berlin also sees this as an important function of these spaces.
One of their lines sticks with you:
“Toys can become Kings.”
In the graffiti scene, a “Toy” is an inexperienced writer or one with little respect within the scene. “Kings”, on the other hand, are writers who have earned major respect through their style, technique, experience or name.
A Hall of Fame isn’t simply a free colorful wall. It’s part of the infrastructure of a scene.
If you’re interested in how a Berlin graffiti crew works and communicates, check out our detailed blog about 1UP.
Why are there so few legal graffiti walls in Berlin?
It’s one of those typical Berlin contradictions.
Graffiti has been part of the city’s international image for decades. At the same time, large, permanently legal spaces are still rare and sometimes take years of negotiation.
For a long time, much of Berlin’s legal graffiti scene was concentrated around just a few spots, such as Mauerpark, Rosenthaler Weg and Parkaue – which meant that finished pieces were sometimes painted over again pretty quickly.
That’s why the North Side Gallery was never just about paint on concrete. It was about public space, rubbish, plants, local residents, safety, responsibility and the question of how much freedom a city allows in places like this.
The rules within the scene are actually pretty simple:
Take your rubbish with you.
Respect the plants.
No discriminatory content.
Treat each other with respect.
Or, as Graffiti Lobby Berlin put it when the North Side Gallery opened:
“That’s the deal.”
But the fact that this deal doesn’t always work perfectly is just as much a part of the story of this place.
Why the North Side Gallery is political
Just a few months after it was officially legalized, rubbish became a major point of conflict. Empty spray cans can’t simply be thrown into regular public bins. In 2023, Graffiti Lobby Berlin therefore organized several clean-up events.
The debate didn’t disappear after that.
In 2025, new signs were installed, and children from the neighborhood worked with artists to create guidelines for better coexistence. Despite this, complaints about rubbish, paint fumes and damage outside the designated areas continued.
In summer 2026, the North Side Gallery once again came under political pressure. A motion in the Mitte district assembly aimed to end legal graffiti at this location. Supporters of the closure pointed to rubbish and potential environmental impacts, among other concerns. Graffiti Lobby Berlin pushed back, calling for better solutions for disposing of spray cans instead of shutting down the Hall of Fame.
And that’s exactly why the North Side Gallery is more than street art.
This is where questions about who public space belongs to, how it can be used and how much disorder a creative city can tolerate are negotiated in a very real way.
North Side Gallery or East Side Gallery?
The two places are often compared because of their names. But they actually serve completely different purposes.
The East Side Gallery shows Berlin’s history. The North Side Gallery shows Berlin today.
At the East Side Gallery, the focus is on artworks painted on a historic section of the Berlin Wall that are preserved and restored. Millions of visitors come to see these exact images.
At the North Side Gallery, it works the other way around.
The piece you photograph today might be gone the next time you visit. Someone paints over it. A different style appears. The writer might even still be standing in front of the wall while you walk past.
The East Side Gallery is looked at.
The North Side Gallery is used.
That’s exactly why I wouldn’t see one as a replacement for the other. If you’re interested in the Berlin Wall, you should visit the East Side Gallery.
If you want to understand how graffiti in Berlin works today, you should also make the trip to Nordbahnhof.
Graffiti has always been part of everyday life for me in Berlin
If you grew up in Friedrichshain or Berlin in general, graffiti was never some exotic “subculture”.
It was just there.
1UP.
Berlin Kidz.
THC.
ADHS.
Paradox.
Tags on bridges. Pieces on building walls. Photos of completely painted train cars.
In the 2000s and early 2010s, you’d still go to hip-hop or graffiti shops around Samariterstraße. A lot of Berliners probably still remember places like HHV, Fotoboom or Hip Hop Cave.
Graffiti was part of the cityscape.
That’s why the North Side Gallery doesn’t really feel like a tourist attraction to me either. It feels more like an extension of this urban culture.
Much like the RAW-Gelände, around Oberbaum Bridge or, back in the day, at Kunsthaus Tacheles, it’s not just about art.
It’s about space, freedom and who actually shapes a city.
Why I recommended the North Side Gallery to guests
Even in 2024, while working as a concierge at a Berlin hotel, I regularly recommended the North Side Gallery to guests.
Especially to younger people, returning visitors or anyone genuinely interested in street art, urban spaces and a side of Berlin beyond the usual sights.
And honestly?
Most of them still went to the East Side Gallery.
Not because it’s better.
But because it’s famous.
That happens all the time in Berlin. People fly halfway around the world to come here and still end up moving between the same places that are already in every guidebook.
That’s exactly why the North Side Gallery is one of our most important Berlin insider tips.
Not because there aren’t other people there. And not because it’s some kind of secret spot.
But because you see something there that is actually part of everyday life in Berlin today.
Is the North Side Gallery worth visiting?
If you like graffiti, photography or urban spaces: definitely.
The North Side Gallery is free to visit, centrally located and easy to combine with a walk through Park am Nordbahnhof. It’s especially interesting when writers are working there.
For photographers, the place is constantly changing. Colors, motifs and entire sections of the wall can look completely different just a few weeks later.
Don’t expect a curated gallery, though.
Some pieces are impressive. Others aren’t. Some sections of the wall look chaotic or are half-painted over. That’s part of it.
The North Side Gallery is unfinished.
And that’s probably its greatest strength.
If you’re interested in Berlin’s graffiti culture in general, you’ll quickly realize here that street art isn’t just about the images that eventually end up on postcards. Behind it is a scene with its own rules, conflicts, political decisions and the constant question of where there’s still room to experiment in a city that is becoming increasingly planned and controlled.
That’s exactly why the North Side Gallery fits Berlin so well.
The city sells its urban image around the world. At the same time, the scene has to fight for the legal spaces that make that image possible in the first place.
That contradiction isn’t pretty.
But it’s very Berlin.
Feel free to check out our blogs about Museum Island, Monbijou Theater, Volkspark Friedrichshain, the Bundestag and Holzmarkt 25.
Berlin is not a tourist attraction. Berlin is a city.
See you in the honest Berlin – or right here in the next blog.
Take care 🖤
MOST IMAGES IN THIS ARTICLE ARE EXAMPLE IMAGES AND WERE NOT TAKEN AT THE LOCATIONS FEATURED IN THE ARTICLE.
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