On the way back from the dentist, I looked up and saw The Cheesegrater, above Victorian buildings on Threadneedle Street. I sheltered from the rain under a Classical pediment, and made this sketch.
The Cheesegrater is also known as “The Leadenhall Building”, which is descriptive of its location, but not its shape.
The building to its left, under construction, is “22 Bishopsgate”. According to the informative panel from its builders, Multiplex, this will be 278m tall, with 3 basement layers, and 62 upper storeys, providing 1.4M sq feet of “net useable space” which accommodates 11000 people. That’s 1273 sq ft of useable space per person, or 141 sq yards: a space about 12×12 yards, which is about the size of our living room, including the kitchen.
I did the picture outside a building whose architects had had their names inscribed in serif capitals, low down: Mewes and Davis. This is number 53 Threadneedle Street, and now houses Montanero Asset Management Limited, and the Burger and Lobster Bar. A blue plaque of the City of London declares that this was the “site of the 13th Century Hospital of St Anthony, and of the French Protestant Church demolished 1840”.
Opposite, above a grand entrance door to number 30, is the motto “Concordia parvae res crescent” and the crest of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors. This is the Merchant Taylors Hall, the yellowish building on the front right of the drawing.
Multiplex also have “2 other projects on Bishopsgate”, said their notice, “number 15 and number 100”. I don’t know about making small things flourish, but big things are certainly flourishing.
About 45 minutes, pen and wash on location, drawn standing up.
Jane Sketching 