Author: Jane

Urban sketcher, coastal artist, swimmer.

Flaxman Lodge, London, WC1

This wonderfully turreted building adorns a street corner in Bloomsbury.

Flaxman Lodge, Flaxman Terrace, London WC1H 9AW sketched 31 Dec 2025 in Sketchbook 16

It is listed Grade II. According to the listing entry it was built in 1907-8 to designs of Joseph and Smitham, “for the Vestry of St Pancras”. St Pancras is a church on the nearby Euston Road.

Map showing the location of the Lodge and St Pancras Church

Pevsner1 takes a different view. He associates this lodge with the terrace behind, which has the same domed turrets. He says:

FLAXMAN TERRACE, early St Pancras Borough Housing, 1907-8 by Joseph & Smithem. 6 storeys, with much conspicuously pretty detail: rough cast top floor and Art Nouveau railings. Similar features on the engaging little caretaker’s lodge at the corner of Burton Street

Pevsner, London 4 NORTH
Pevsner’s “LONDON 4:NORTH” book, describing Flaxman Terrace on page 330.

You can see the redbrick terrace, mentioned by Pevsner, in the photo below, with its domed turret matching the turret on the lodge.

Corner of Flaxman Terrace and Burton Street

So, in Pevsner’s version, the designer Smithem has an “e” not and “a”, and this building is “an engaging little caretaker’s lodge”.

Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras Coat of Arms on Flaxman Terrace railings

The “e” is correct. The architectural practice of Joseph and Smithem was founded by Nathan Solomon Joseph (1834-1909) and Charles James Smithem (1856-1937)2. The practitioners later included sons and a nephew of the founders. The practice designed a number of buildings in London including social housing, schools and the Egerton Road synagogue in Stamford Hill.

Flaxman Terrace was originally built as social housing by the then Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras, whose coat of arms is in the cast iron railings of Flaxman Lodge.3

Now Flaxman Lodge appears to be a private house. Evidently at one time it was divided into flats. Planning permission to convert the flats into one “4 bed dwelling house” was granted by Camden Council in 2014, application reference 2014/1396/P

The property was last sold for £2,280,000 in 2017 (The Move Market)

I sketched this building standing at the corner of Flaxman Terrace and Woburn Walk. “Woburn” would imply a possible burn or stream. Sure enough, the marvellous “British History Online” site delivers a map showing a stream in this location:

‘The Skinners’ Company Estate’, in Survey of London: Volume 24, the Parish of St Pancras Part 4: King’s Cross Neighbourhood, ed. Walter H Godfrey, W McB. Marcham (London, 1952), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol24/pt4/pp83-93 [accessed 1 January 2026]

I was standing in roughly the position of the “pond” shown in the 1785 map on the left. At that time, I would have been surrounded by fields. By 1898, urbanisation had arrived, but not yet this Lodge. The routes of old byways and street boundaries are retained. Here’s a 1942 map4, by which time the Lodge has appeared. The street pattern of 100 years previously is still there.

OS Map Revised 1894 Published 1911 Reprinted 1942 – Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland’
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence.
Link: https://maps.nls.uk/

For comparison, here is a modern map:

(c) OpenStreetMap contributors https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/51.526865/-0.129873

The former “Drill Hall” has become “The Place” contemporary dance centre, and many of the 19th century terraces have been replaced by larger buildings. But the street pattern is unchanged. Burton Street still follows the angle of a long-gone field fence.

Sketching “the Lodge” at the corner of Flaxman Terrace and Woburn Place.
Sketchbook 16
  1. London 4: North, Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, 2001 reprint, page 330 ↩︎
  2. https://victorianweb.org/art/architecture/joseph/index.html ↩︎
  3. See “Footprints of London” on this link for more information about the Coat of Arms and the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras. ↩︎
  4. National Library of Scotland OS map:
    “Somers Town Edition of 1911”
    https://maps.nls.uk/view/231272247#zoom=4.2&lat=8319&lon=6377&layers=BT
    ↩︎

National Theatre and 76 South Bank

On the 2nd January I joined a group of other artists sketching on London’s South Bank. This was an event organised by Jackson’s Art Supplies of Dalston.

The first picture I attempted was of the National Theatre.

Sketching the National Theatre – 2nd January 2026

It was extremely cold and there was an unforgiving wind.

I managed to finish the pen-and-ink but at this point I abandoned the idea of putting the watercolour on the picture, and hurried into the National Theatre to thaw out. The staff there patiently inspected my bag of art equipment. In the café I found a group of other artists from the event, drinking coffee, testing the operation of their fingers and talking about art materials.

Coffee and company warmed me up. I decided to try simpler drawings using big crayons that I could wield in gloves. Here’s a flick through the sketchbook:

South Bank sketchbook flick-through

The black marks are made with a Derwent “inktense” stick. These sticks make charcoal-like marks, which you can then darken or spread out with water.

The National Theatre – inktense stick on Arches cold-pressed paper

Here’s my last picture of the day. I was determined to use the watercolours, and found a spot where the wind was attenuated by a concrete wall.

At 3pm we all congregated and shared our pictures. I was really impressed at how many of us had persisted, in the cold, right to the end of the event, and at the wonderful work everyone had done. I mean, doing anything at that temperature was an achievement, I thought. You can see a picture of the assembled participants in the Jackson’s newsletter on this link.

Later, at home in the warm, I added the watercolour to my initial sketch of the National Theatre.

National Theatre and 76 South Bank – 2nd January 2026 in sketchbook 16

It was an inspiring day out. Thank you to the Jackson’s team for the initiative and the organisation. And thanks to the wonderful National Theatre for the warm and welcoming spaces, the café, and the toilets…..!

New Year 2026

Greetings!

And for those interested in technique: the blue background of this card is made by printing. The printing “plate” was torn cardboard, stuck onto cardboard. Here’s an example. Each “plate” made about a dozen cards, before it became too deteriorated to work properly.

The boat and the star are cut from wrapping paper.

This is a card, sent by post to people, snail mail, in an envelope with a postage stamp. Why? Because it seems to me that material connection matters. I make real objects in the real world, and spend real time making material things. Even if only out of paper and cardboard. Even in 2026……

Rotherhithe Tunnel Shaft 2, London SE16

I have sketched the Rotherhithe Tunnel Ventilation Shaft on the North Bank of the Thames. So I went on an expedition to sketch its sister shaft on the South side. Here it is.

Rotherhithe Tunnel Shaft 2, sketched 4 November 2025 in Sketchbook 16 (c) JaneSketching

Here’s a map showing the river downstream of Tower Bridge, and the location of these structures. Click to enlarge.

Map showing the Rotherhithe tunnel, all 4 shafts, and the entrances. Click to enlarge.
(c) OpenStreetMapcontributors

You can see one shaft from the other. Here’s a picture looking North across the Thames, just before I started the sketch. The light wasn’t great, but you can still see both shafts 2 and 3. See how wide the river is at this point! The distance between the two shafts is around 1500ft (500 metres).

Photo looking north across the Thames at Rotherhithe 4th November 2025 (c) JaneSketching

Here’s a photo from closer:

Photo looking north across the Thames at Rotherhithe 4th November 2025 (c) JaneSketching

Shaft 2 is hidden behind high orange fences as you see. On the inland side it is behind a residential building at 157 Rotherhithe Street.

The view from Rotherhithe St
Click here to go to map: https://www.openstreetmap.org/?#map=15/51.50452/-0.05304

The Rotherhithe tunnel has 4 shafts. Shafts 2 and 3 are the round shapes and resemble each other. Both are Grade II listed.

Shaft 3
Shaft 2
Sketches of Shafts 3 and 4 (c) JaneSketching

Shafts 1 and 4 have been modernised.

Shaft 1
Shaft 4
Shafts 1 and 4 (iPhone photos, (c) JaneSketching, November 2025)

My next expedition will be to sketch the entrances to the tunnel.

Sketchbook 16 spread

Watercolours by Daniel Smith :
– Burnt Umber
– Serpentine Genuine
– Phthalo Blue Turquoise
– Transparent Pyrrol Orange
– Mars Yellow
– Fired Gold Ochre

Colours and brushes used for this picture. Colours by Daniel Smith. Brushes by Rosemary Brushes. Ceramic palette by Mary Ling. Brass Palette by Classic Paintboxes.

The Leather Market Workspace, Bermondsey, SE1 3ER

Here is The Leather Market Workspace. The Victorian building on the left is the back of the Grade II listed former “London Leather, Hide & Wool Exchange”, 1878, designed by George Elkington and Sons.

The Leather Market, Bermondsey, sketched 7th November 2025 in Sketchbook 16

My idea had been to sketch the front of the Victorian building from Weston Street. But the front was obscured by delivery vans.

We were on the point of abandoning the project, when Toby appeared.

Lynn’s sketch of the same view
(c) Lynn Adams, used with permission.

Toby, it turns out, is in charge of a café. He was standing on the pavement next to a huge arch by the Victorian frontage. Come in! he suggested. Lynn and I followed him through the arch. The space opened out into a large yard, with seats. Toby went into his café and we walked around the yard, sizing up the artistic possibilities. Lynn uttered a shriek of delight. She had discovered a point at the edge of the courtyard with an unexpected view of The Shard. And trees. This was her quest. She settled down to sketch while I went to procure coffee from Toby and his team. Then I started sketching too.

“The Leather Market” is one of a collection of co-working spaces managed by Workspace Group plc. We sketched and drank our coffee in the calm yard. Workers passed by and made encouraging comments.

Working on a sketch of The Leather Market. Pen: Lamy Safari fountain pen

We returned our coffee cups to the friendly café, and set off to explore more of Bermondsey. By the time we emerged out through the arch, the delivery vans had gone from the front of the building.

Thank you to Toby and his team from Skinners Café for making us so welcome!

Here’s a map:

Map showing the viewpoint in the sketch
The Leather Market workspaces – page spread, Sketchbook 16

Colours, all Daniel Smith watercolours:

  • Fired Gold Ochre for the bricks
  • Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue for the grey and blacks
  • Serpentine Genuine for the greens
  • Some Transparent Pyrrol Orange and Mars Yellow for the light indoors
  • all the whites are the paper, fine lines achieved using masking tape and rubber resist.

My pen is a Lamy Safari with EF nib, and De Atramentis Document Black waterproof ink. Paper is Arches Aquarelle 300gsm CP, in a book made by Wyvern Bindery of Hoxton

Work in progress

I have sketched in Bermondsey before:

St James Bermondsey SE1

Walking back from the Little Bread Pedlar with my bag of goodies, I came to a standstill in front of St James’ Church, Bermondsey. This is a…

keep reading

Switzerland Sketches (Oct 2025)

Here is a autumn scene in Sainte-Croix in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland.

View over Sainte-Croix and the Mont de Baulmes, from Chemin des Chalets
Work in progress on the sketch

I sketched also in the village.

House, Rue des Rasses, Sainte-Croix

It is a season of clouds.

Jura scenes

On an expedition to Yverdon-les-Bains I sketched in the Place Pestalozzi.

Bazar D’Yverdon, now L’Epicerie Vrac, Place Pestalozzi 3
1400 Yverdon-les-Bains

It was very cold. I just managed to complete the pen and ink sitting in the square. Then I finished the colour in my hotel room.

This building, Bazar D’Yverdon, dates from the beginning of the 17th century. There is an article in the local paper of 2018 (note 1), with some history of the building, and news of a campaign to prevent its being sold and transformed from a retail space into offices. At the time is was a stationary shop, Papeterie Schaer.

A bazaar is a souk, a living place where there are goods and services, where you gossip, trade. For us, the very name “Bazar” is a real source of inspiration.”

Aurélie Massin-Kerkan, co-president of the association for maintaining usage of the Bazar (note 1 – my translation)

Evidently the campaign was successful. The shop on the ground floor is now a grocer “L’Épicerie VRAC”. I went in to have a look. It sells bulk household goods such as shampoo and muesli, as well as a huge collection of traditional items such as egg timers and kitchen knives and tea towels. The bulk items are displayed in dispensers, so you can fill your own container.

L’Épicerie VRAC

I’ve sketched in Yverdon before. Here is the Temple of Yverdon which is just to the right of the Bazar.

Temple d’Yverdon. The Bazar is the building on the left of this sketch. Click to go to my article about the Temple.

The maps below show the location of Yverdon, in the canton of Vaud.

Canton of Vaud is in the West of Switzerland
Location of Yverdon (c) OpenStreetMap contributors

On the Place Pestalozzi

Note 1: The local paper article about the Bazar is in the archives of “24 heures – VAUD”. It is by Frederick Ravissin, 16 June 2018. Read a pdf of the article here (in French) – link below:

heu_20180616_0_0_9vc6Download

Sketching in Vicenza, Italy

Vicenza is in the Veneto region of Northern Italy, between Verona and Padua.

Location of Vicenza, in Northern Italy. Map (c) OpenStreetMap contributors

Here are the beautiful Colli Berici, the Berici hills.

The church of St Michael Archangel, in the village of Villaga, Vicenza

The villages lie at the base of the Colli Berici, where the hills descend into the Venice plain.

This is the view across that plain, looking towards Padua. You see the Euganian hills, sudden rocks in the flat land.

In the foreground are the vines.

Here’s a sketch of the view from the cave of Saint Donati. The chapel of Saint Donati is on the left.

It was a lovely hike, through woods. Autumn was a good time to visit.

Cave of Saint Donati, above Villaga, Vicenza (iphone photo), Euganian hills on the horizon.

The town of Vicenza has a medieval centre, with buildings designed by Andrea Palladio (1508 – 1580).

La Villa Rotunda, designed by Andrea Palladio, built 1567-1590

We drove to Vicenza along the magnificently named “La Strada del Vino dei Colli Berici”, the Road of the Vines of the Berici Hills. Italian is a marvellous language. Even the road names sound like poetry.

Here’s a barn. The design, with this asymmetrical arch, was a characteristic pattern in the area.

The whole area was a revelation, from the great to the small. As we walked in the hills, the ground crumbled below by boots and I saw a sea shell. We were at maybe 300 metres above sea level. It wasn’t a sea shell, it was a fossil of a sea shell. These hills were below the sea, once.

Rotherhithe Tunnel Shaft 3, King Edward Memorial Park, E14

— A tale of two tunnels —

Construction work for the Thames Tideway tunnel surrounds this small round building on the north side of the Thames, near Shadwell.

Rotherhithe Tunnel Shaft 3, King Edward VII Memorial Park, sketched 9th September 2025 in Sketchbook 16

This building is an air shaft and access point access for the Rotherhithe tunnel. The Rotherhithe Tunnel carries road traffic between Rotherhithe on the south of the river and Limehouse on the north. It was constructed between 1904 and 1908, for horses and carts. The designer was Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice.

The tunnel links Limehouse on the north of the river to Rotherhithe on the south. Built originally for horse-drawn carriages and pedestrians, the tunnel now carries far more traffic than it was designed for, which requires careful day to day management by TfL to ensure safety.

Transport for London press release 20181

This circular building is one of four shafts giving access to the tunnel. It contains a spiral staircase, which was in use from when the tunnel was opened in 1908 until the 1970s2. This access is now closed to the public. The shaft building and the staircase are Grade II listed3.

Next to the shaft there is a stone tablet:

THIS TABLET IS IN MEMORY OF
SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY, STEPHEN BOROUGH,
WILLIAM BOROUGH, SIR MARTIN FROBISHER AND OTHER NAVIGATORS WHO, IN THE LATTER HALF OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, SET SAIL
FROM THIS REACH OF THE RIVER THAMES NEAR
RATCLIFF CROSS
TO EXPLORE THE NORTHERN SEAS.
ERECTED BY THE LONDON. COUNTY COUNCIL, 1922

The roof in my picture dates from a refurbishment in 20074. Originally there was a glass dome5.

Location of Rotherhithe Tunnel Shaft 3, map (c) OpenStreetMap contributors.

The fences in my drawing are the perimeter of a Thames Tideway tunnel construction site. The Thames Tideway Tunnel carries sewage from central London to Becton Sewage Treatment Works. It runs under the Thames. At various points there is a junction between this main sewer and a local sewerage system. The site at King Edward VII is one such junction.

Screenshot from the Thames Tideway Tunnel website, downloaded 2 November 2025, click to enlarge. Link: https://www.tideway.london/locations/king-edward-memorial-park-foreshore/

The Thames Tideway tunnel runs longitudinally along the Thames, so it crosses the Rotherhithe tunnel, which goes across the Thames. But this is not a problem, as the Thames Tideway tunnel is 60m6 below the Thames and the Rotherhithe tunnel is just 23m down7. So they do not bump into each other.

Map showing the position of Shaft 3 at the North end of the Rotherhithe Tunnel. (c) OpenStreetMap Contributors.
Sketchbook 16 spread

I’ve read that you can walk through the Rotherhithe Tunnel starting from one of the the tunnel entrances and passing under the shaft I’ve drawn. Those who have tried it8, even during the pandemic, do not recommend the experience. The tunnel is highly polluted from the vehicle fumes, and the pavement is narrow. It’s even pretty terrifying to drive through it in a car. Close the windows and the air vents, and stay alert while driving. If you’d like to walk a Thames tunnel, I recommend the Greenwich Foot Tunnel, or the Woolwich Foot tunnel, both of which I’ve walked. They are fun, eerie and have no traffic to pollute the air. You can read about my excursion to the Woolwich Foot Tunnel here.

Disambiguation: The Rotherhithe Tunnel I’m talking about in this post is not the same as an earlier tunnel built between 1825 and 1843 by Marc Brunel, and his son, Isambard. This Brunel tunnel was a little further upstream, and is now used as a railway tunnel only.

References:

  1. Transport For London Press release 12 June 2018 contains data about the numer of vehicles using the tunnel: https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2018/june/rotherhithe-tunnel-celebrates-110-years-of-transporting-people-across-the-thames ↩︎
  2. Access to the tunnel via the shafts was from 1908 until the 1970s. FOI FOI-0398-2526 confirms the presence of stairs inside the shaft building: TfL Freedom of information request FOI-0398-2526: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transparency/freedom-of-information/foi-request-detail?referenceId=FOI-0398-2526 ↩︎
  3. Historic England Listing: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1260101?section=official-list-entry ↩︎
  4. Roof replacement 2007 confirmed by King Edward VII park “Management Plan” 2008 page 15: “The park surrounds the tunnel vent and access shaft to the Rotherhithe Tunnel. The tunnel was opened in 1908, the vent was present before the park was constructed, and early images of the park show that it visually dominated the site. The tunnel vent remains an important feature, but is no longer so visually dominant due to the present day maturity of trees in the park. The Rotherhithe Tunnel was refurbished in 2007 and a replacement roof was installed as part of these works.”
    Link: https://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/Documents/Leisure-and-culture/Parks-and-open-spaces/king-edward-management-plan.pdf ↩︎
  5. Roof of the shaft:
    1908 – glass dome,
    by 1946 – no roof (removed in the 1930s),
    from 2007 – current roof as in my drawing.
    Evidence:
    London Picture Archive has a picture of the shaft in 1921, where you can see the glass dome that covered the shaft. Record number 118817, Catalogue number SC_PHL_01_392_A360 See this link: https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/view-item?WINID=1762114518393&i=121045. They also have photographs from 1971 where it’s clear that the roof has been removed completely. See photo on this link, record number 237845, catalogue number SC_PHL_02_0666_71_35_217_30A: https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/view-item?i=239938
    “A London Inheritance” post contains an aerial picture from 1946 showing that the roof had been removed by that date. See this link. This post says: ” The following photo dated 1946 from Britain from Above shows the park at lower left. Note the round access shaft to the Rotherhithe tunnel. In the photo the shaft has no roof. The original glass roof was removed in the 1930s to improve ventilation. The current roof was installed in 2007.” ↩︎
  6. Thames Tideway Tunnel information from the Tideway tunnel website: https://www.tideway.london/locations/king-edward-memorial-park-foreshore/ ↩︎
  7. Depth of the Rotherhithe Tunnel is from the website of the Rotherhithe & Bermondsey  Local History Society on this link: https://www.rbhistory.org.uk/rotherhithe-road-tunnel ↩︎
  8. Walking through the Rotherhithe tunnel: see for example “Ian Visits” : https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/walking-through-a-tunnel-under-the-thames-part-1-11764/ ↩︎

2 Leathermarket Street, Bermondsey, SE1

From the café “Morocco Bound” I sketched the distinctive building across the street.

This is 2 Leathermarket Street:

2 Leathermarket Street, London SE1 3HN. Sketched 5th September 2025 in Sketchbook 16

In the distance you see The Shard, at London Bridge Station.

This was the leathermaking district up to the beginning of the twentieth century. We have Leathermarket St, Morocco St, and Tanner St. The former “Leather Hide and Wool Exchange” is further up Leathermarket Street, towards Borough, to the west.

The building was listed Grade II in 1972. It is early 19th century, according to the listing.

Here is the area in 1976, in a picture from the London Archives, used with permission:

1976 photo, Building in Morocco Street, record number 51956
image source: (c) The London Archives (City of London Corporation), picture used under licence reference #007089
https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/view-item?i=54304&WINID=1730309548612

The windows are all still there as in 1976, with the same window frames, now painted purple. Even the weird little chimneypot on the top of the turret is still there, as it was 50 years ago. In this 1976 picture the placard between the windows says “Ryedene Ltd” but I have been unable to discover if this company was in the leather business. There is no placard now.

“The Department” now occupies this building. Their business, according to their website, is:

combining cutting edge technology with humanising theatrics to create experiences which are technically masterful and purposely human”

https://www.the-department.co.uk/services/ downloaded 31 October 2025

To the right of 2 Leathermarket Street is a garage, “R.W. Auto’s” which I have sketched previously:

2 Morocco Street, sketched from “Morocco Bound”, 18th October 2024, 2pm in Sketchbook 15

Thank you to “Morocco Bound” for their hospitality while I sketched these pictures. It’s a calm and welcoming bookshop and café in an interesting location. I’ll be back!

Page spread, Sketchbook 16

Trieste Travel Journal – September 2025

I was gifted a sketchbook from L Cornelissen of London, a marvellous thing, beautifully bound.

Sketchbook from L Cornelissen, 9.5 inches by 7.5 inches, thick cartridge paper

It seemed perfect for taking on a visit to Trieste, Italy.

I used it for notes, sketches, and as a sort of scrapbook. After the trip I added photos. Here are some of the pages.

Here is a video of the journal (silent, about 90 seconds).

The black and white photos are analogue, from a film camera. The camera is an Olympus XA2 point-and-shoot from the 1980s, and the film was Kentmere 400 pan, developed and printed by Analogue Wonderland.