Childhood

Robin's father, Peter Gordon Gunningham, 66, is a retired contracts manager from the Whitehall area of Bristol. His mother, Pamela Ann Dawkin-Jones, 67, was a company director's secretary and grew up in the exclusive surroundings of Clifton. She now works in a nursing home.

The couple married on April 25, 1970, at Kingswood Wesley Methodist Church. On February 8, 1972, their daughter Sarah was born at Bristol Maternity Hospital, by which time Peter had been promoted to area manager for a hotel company and the couple had bought their first home, a semidetached house in Bristol.

On July 28, 1973, Robin (Banksy)was born in the same hospital. According to neighbors, the boy had early surgery for a cleft palette.

When Robin was nine, the family moved to a larger home in the same street and it is there he spent his formative years and became interested in graffiti.