Barts Square, Butchers’ Hall

Continuing my exploration of Barts Square, EC1, today I drew Butchers’ Hall.

Butchers’ Hall is the building with the arched windows, in the centre left of the picture. It is the headquarters of The Worshipful Company of Butchers. This livery company is very old, the Arms were granted in 1540 and the charter by James I in 1605. The current hall is surprisingly new: built in 1960, and refurbished in 2015-2019. The mansard roof, just visible in grey at the top of the hall, was completed in 1996.

On the left the red brick building is 90 Bartholomew Close, which is offices. In the background is Percival House, residential flats built as part of the Barts Square development. Behind the tree is a building site. People are still working on other residential blocks in this development.

I drew this picture from beside a tree in the middle of the square, as you see from the map above. It was extraordinarily cold. There was slight rain, or more likely sleet. So after the pen-and-ink stage, I beat a retreat to the warmth of the café “Halfcup” to do the colouring indoors. They kindly found me a table with a view in approximately the right direction. All was going well until the delivery van arrived.

I peered round the edges of the van and surprised other guests in the restaurant by pacing erratically to get a better view. Then the van driver completed their deliveries and drove off. I worked quickly in case another van appeared.

Here is work in progress and a bigger map. Thank you to the staff of Halfcup who made me very welcome and brought hot tea to thaw out my hands.

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Drawing took about 2 hours. Main colours used: Phthalo Turquoise (W&N), Mars Yellow (DS), Burnt Umber (DS), Perinone Orange (DS), Naples Yellow Red (R). The sky is the Phthalo Turquoise and Burnt Umber, very dilute. Blue and brown make grey.

I sketched in Barts Square yesterday as well: