Living and working in Cape Town can be a journey of discovery for people who love design, illustration and graffiti. Our trains are regularly painted, by undercover artists so gifted I often wonder why the hell Metro Rail (the train company) doesn't just hip the hell up and employ these cats to just get on with the job of decorating their trains legitimately. Sure, some of the tags are scruffy, but the guys who hit the yards in stealth mode often throw up pieces that are really well executed, and add a dash of colour to otherwise pretty dreary carriages.

('Adrenalin' by DALEast, image ©DALEast)

Obviously there's a whole moral discussion which often pits those who think there's room for this kind of street art against those who believe graffiti to be a crime against private property, but that's a debate for another time and place. This post isn't about justifying or criticising 'illegal' graffiti; it's about legal street art, which we here in the Woodstock area of Cape Town are fortunate enough to have brightening otherwise grey and tumbledown corners of our city.

Since we've moved into the Woodstock Exchange (which in itself is a buzzing hive of breakneck construction), we here at The Leap have had the good fortune of being located literally within spitting distance of some of the best wall art the city has to offer. Tucked away in the most pokey corners are pieces by names recognised the world over as being amongst the best out there: Makatron, Faith47, DALEast and many more.

Many of these pieces are thanks to the great work being done by the good people over at /A Word Of Art, who're located on the ground floor of the Exchange. Thanks to their artist exchange program (which we touched on in a previous post), some of the world's finest street artists get the opportunity to ply their trade on some of Cape Town, and Woodstock's, most neglected walls. The results are always a pleasant surprise, and often transform a nosy dawdle amongst the charming backstreets into a journey of discovery, with each corner turned unearthing a dazzling piece that sits brightening its little part of the world.

If you're in the area, take a walk around our new hood - and hey, it is a hood, so be watchful. Woodstock has been the focus of gentrification for some time, but before the charming soul of the place is entirely scrubbed clean by the hipster dollar, poke your nose around the back streets that lie between Albert and Victoria roads - there's a world of art just waiting to be discovered.