On a radiantly bright day I walked East from the City in search of horizons. Wapping, east of Tower Bridge, is where the buildings at last are of human size, and you can see the sky. Next to the pub called “Town of Ramsgate” on Wapping High Street, there is a small passage, a slot…
The passage is to the right, in front of the pub
Wapping Old Stairs is quite hard to find. It is next to the “Town of Ramsgate” pub.
This sketch took about 45 minutes. The colours are Fired Gold Ochre (DS), Phthalo Turquoise (W&N), Perylene Maroon (DS), Mars Yellow (DS). I used the Fired Gold Ochre because it granulates so usefully to make the sand. The algae and green plants on the steps were slightly iridescent, glowing rather strangely even though in shadow.
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I drew Bayer House from a quiet spot above the Leisure Centre. Bayer House is the brick building on the right. The white building in the centre is Peabody Tower, on the Peabody Estate, the other side of Golden Lane.
In the background, you see the “HYLO” tower on Bunhill Row, under construction.
Bayer House (right), Golden Lane Estate.
Bayer House is three rows of 2 storey maisonettes: like three terraced streets, stacked. The brick walls are pink brinks with pink mortar: very pink. The architects are Chamberlain, Powell and Bon.
I drew this picture from the podium level, one storey up. In the sunken playground area, children played. I could hear their voices below me, and caught an occasional glimpse as they dashed into my field of view. Then I heard another noise, a rhythmic beat or clunk. I thought the children must have some kind of percussive instrument that they were playing with, like two large rocks. May be they were slapping two boxing gloves together. Then their voices opened into greetings. Just at that moment, two enormous police horses came into view, walking at my level. The police officers had paused their mounts, and were waving to the children below. I called out a hello, and then the police officers saw me too. “Hey look, there’s someone drawing!” They moved their horses on, hoofs clip-clopping on the concrete, very loud, and now, of course, utterly distinctive.
Many of the blocks on the Golden Lane Estate are named for councillors or other officials of the City of London who were in post at the time the Estate was under construction. But I could not find a “Bayer”. “Hatfield”, of “Hatfield House” which I drew previously, was also not to be found in the lists. After a long search, the marvellous London Metropolitan Archives turned up the answer. Hatfield St, and parts of Basterfield St, were subject of a compulsory purchase order in 1954. Bayer St, Great and Little Arthur Street, and the intriguing “Hot Water Court” were compulsorily purchased in 1951. So these houses are named after streets. More searching revealed the maps, see below. You see the former Bayer St in approximately the position of Bayer House, and Great Arthur St where Great Arthur House is now. Hatfield House and Basterfield House are also in the position of their corresponding streets. There is still a vestige of Basterfield St north of Basterfield House. Click to enlarge the maps below.
My sketch map of the former street layout, from the maps.
Historical A-Z Map of London about 1935
“Maps-of-London.com” Finsbury, about 1940
Golden Lane Estate, blue arrow shows sightline of my drawing.
Historical maps showing the street layout before the Golden Lane Estate was built.
The colours in this picture are Fired Gold Ochre (DS), Phthalo Turquoise (W&N), Mars Yellow(DS), Buff Titanium (DS), and Perylene Maroon (DS). There a bit of Transparent Pyrrol Orange (DS) in the tree and the balconies of Bayer House. It was very cold and the colours did not dry which is why they are a bit blurry.
The collection of my Golden Lane Estate drawings is here:
Cosser St SE1 – North West side. 12 inches by 9 inches [SOLD]
It was a blustery day, as you see. In the background are the buildings on the other side of the Kennington Road.
There are many parked cars in this street. They are constantly on the move, coming and going. You can see some ghostly images of them in the distance. The main point of the picture was the building. I didn’t draw all the cars. A Civil Enforcement Officer wove her way amongst them, checking number plates.
A man came by carrying a large musical instrument in a black case on his back. I think it was a ‘cello. Then he came back the other way. Then he went back a third time. I noticed him all three times, and he saw me noticing him. On the third time, he came over and politely asked to see the picture. He obviously felt some explanation was needed for his criss-crossing the street multiple times. He said, “I’ve left my mobile phone at my friend’s house. And you don’t realise….” He trailed off, because it seemed redundant to repeat the modern problem: I can’t even phone him because, obviously, my phone is at his house and…”. “I’ll get it”, he went on, “So long as he’s up.” He grinned and shrugged, and carried on across the road. I was not entirely convinced by this story. Why, then, was he carrying his heavy musical instrument back and forth?
This is the final sketch in a series of three made for a commission. Here are the three. All are 12″ by 9″ on Arches 300gsm watercolour paper.
The colours in this picture are: Buff Titanium (DS), Perylene Maroon (DS), Mars Yellow (DS), Fired Gold Ochre (DS) and Phthalo Turquoise (W&N). I did a preliminary sketch, which you see in these work-in-progress pictures.
Here is a building in Cosser St, near Lambeth North tube station. This is the first of three drawings in the area, for a commission. Someone who had enjoyed living here was going to be moving to the country, and asked me make some pictures for them, to remember the locality. Ambulances park in this…
Here is the second sketch of Cosser St. From this angle you can see “The Steam Engine” pub, which is the red-roofed building in the picture, fronting onto Cosser St. The day when I drew this was a surprisingly hot October day. The blue sky is accurate. I was drawing standing up, with a dull…
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This is Hatfield House, at the North side of the Golden Lane Estate, EC1.
Hatfield House, Golden Lane Estate, 12″x9″ watercolour [SOLD]
The arches in the middle of the picture are above the Golden Lane Leisure Centre, which is closed at the moment. You can just see the blue vending display, which has goggles and other items for use in the swimming pool.
While I was drawing the picture, I caught movement in the side of my vision. A man appeared below me, indoors, by the side of the swimming pool. I looked at him through the window. He was fully dressed, with covers over his shoes, stirring a bucket with a long pole. After a long period of patient stirring, he poured the contents of the bucket into the swimming pool. Then he refilled the bucket, set it on the edge of the pool, and started stirring again. At that point I stopped watching and resumed my drawing. When I looked back again, he had gone.
This picture was drawn for a commission. I made a preliminary drawing, and various sketches. Here is work in progress. The big challenge was to get the perspective lines right, to show the depth and distance.
A resident of Crescent House commissioned me to draw his block.
Crescent House – 12″x9″ original watercolour (SOLD)
This is a view from the podium level, above the Golden Lane Leisure centre. The block on the left is Cullum Welch House. The yellow colour in the centre is a reflection of Great Arthur House in the windows of Crescent House.
Map showing the view of Crescent House in the drawing (North is on the right)
The pavement by the wall was being re-laid. Just off the picture, to the right, people who were laying the paving stones sang merry tunes, and insulted each other. “Dean, I don’t believe how long that’s taken you. It’s a five minute job!”
Dean was moving the metal fencing around, making a sound like a drum roll. They needed to reconfigure their enclosure as they finished one section of paving and moved onto the next. I didn’t catch Dean’s repost, but the answer was, “No…no.. it’s just because you are lazy….”
Here is work in progress on this final drawing. It is made on a block of Saunders Waterford Hot Press 300gsm paper.
Finished drawing, 12″ by 9″ (SOLD)
Work in progress
The tapes round the edge are to give me something to hold, also they make a nice border to the picture.
Pen and ink
On the concrete
Work in progress with pen and ink
Work in progress. You can see the enclosure of the pavers in the background.
Pencil under-drawing
Work in progress on the final sketch, 9th October 2020
I made some preliminary drawings a few days previously, to get my head around the composition and the perspective challenges.
Sketchbook and perspective study
Sketchbook and palette
Pen
Pen sketch in progress
Pen
Working on perspective
Sketch in sketchbook – 5th October 2020
Sketch in sketchbook, 5th October 2020, and work in progress.
At the bottom left of the sketch is that strange sloping block. It is pointed. I didn’t get the whole of it in the sketch as it is so fascinating that it would have distracted from the main object of the drawing which is Crescent House. But it is worthy of examination. It looks like a tank trap. But what is it doing there? There are two of them.
As you see they are wonderful sculptural objects, worthy of a drawing in their own right.
Probably they are to stop people from sitting on that convenient ledge.
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What is inktober? It’s a drawing challenge. There are prompts each day in October. The challenge I set myself is to do a drawing for each prompt, in ink, square. You can see the prompts here and on Inktober.com Why do I do it? It’s different from my “normal” work. My urban sketches and other art generally take several hours, and are from life (non-fiction). I do the inktober drawings quickly, in less than half an hour normally, and from imagination (fiction). Inktober jolts me into other worlds. It’s also a challenge, and enjoyable. I also like to see what other people draw, from the same prompt. The drawings are posted on instagram with the tag #inktober2020.
I did it last year for the first time. It surprises me that I can do it.
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Cosser St SE1 – North East Side, from McAuley Crescent. 12 inches by 9 inches [SOLD]
From this angle you can see “The Steam Engine” pub, which is the red-roofed building in the picture, fronting onto Cosser St.
The day when I drew this was a surprisingly hot October day. The blue sky is accurate.
I was drawing standing up, with a dull red van behind me and my bicycle in front of me. As I drew, a rubbish truck arrived in front of The Steam Engine, and proceeded to reverse slowly down McAuley Crescent towards me. You can see the curve of the Crescent in the drawing. The driver skilfully negotiated that bend in the road, and kept on coming. I must have looked rather nervous, because the driver grinned at me, wound down his window, and called out, “Are you doin’ alright there?” I said that yes I was doing fine, and was I in his way? No no, he assured me. I told him how much I had admired his skilful driving, backwards down the road. He laughed again, and informed me, “I bin doin’ this since the 1980s. I should be good at it!”. Then he continued his smooth reversing, back beyond the red van and out of my line of sight.
I knew he must come back again, so when I heard the lorry engine I paused my drawing to wave. He waved back and called out a greeting, as he and his lorry hurtled confidently back towards Cosser St and their next collection.
The colours in this picture are: Buff Titanium (DS), Perylene Maroon (DS), Green Gold (DS), Fired Gold Ochre (DS) and Phthalo Turquoise (W&N). I did a preliminary sketch, which you see in these work-in-progress pictures.
Preliminary sketch
Work area
The picture is red, because the red van is behind me.
Pen sketch
This was the second picture done in a set of three for a commission.
Here is a building in Cosser St, near Lambeth North tube station. This is the first of three drawings in the area, for a commission. Someone who had enjoyed living here was going to be moving to the country, and asked me make some pictures for them, to remember the locality. Ambulances park in this…
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Here is a building in Cosser St, near Lambeth North tube station.
Cosser Street SE1 – South West view. 12 inches by 9 inches [SOLD]
This is the first of three drawings in the area, for a commission. Someone who had enjoyed living here was going to be moving to the country, and asked me make some pictures for them, to remember the locality.
Ambulances park in this area. The street is not so empty as I have drawn it. Fortunately, they do not always park in the same place, so I could draw the front of the building a bit at a time. You can see the ambulances in the work-in-progress drawings below.
It was very cold, and there was an autumn wind.
Preliminary drawing to work on the perspective
Bicycle as work station
Pencil underdrawing
Pencil underdrawing
Pen
Pen drawing and ambulance
Tools
Watercolour in progress, and ambulances
Work in progress, Cosser Street South East corner
Plants grow all along the base of the building. I indicated them in the picture.
The colours in this picture are: Phthalo Turquoise (W&N), Perylene Maroon (DS), Fired Gold Ochre (DS), Mars Yellow (DS), and Green Gold (DS).
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Jane Sketching 