Happy New Year!
This is a woodcut, based on the rooftops of the town of Rye, in East Sussex.
Bedroom becomes print studio.
Many good wishes for 2025!
Glad, as the years pass,
that I am granted
another evening.
New Year 2025
Author: Jane
Urban sketcher, coastal artist, swimmer.
The Market Café, Broadway Market, E8
Here is the Market Café, which is at the South end of Broadway Market, near the canal.
I’ve sketched the Market Café before, and written about it on this post. This latest sketch was a commission to celebrate a happy event which took place there.
Here are some details from the sketch:
It was a bright and cold day. I did the pen and ink on location.
The photographer Nick Hillier came by and took some photographs of me working, which he kindly sent me later.
I added the colours at my desk. The colours are:
- for the brickwork: Fired Gold Ochre
- all the greys and blacks are: Ultramarine Blue plus Burnt Umber
- the sky is Phthalo Blue Turquoise
- the green tiles are Serpentine Genuine
- there’s a bit of Permanent Yellow Deep on some of the highlights and some dots of Transparent Pyrrol Orange
- the fine white lines are made by using a rubber resist gum. I use Pebeo drawing gum.
For my current palette see this link. I have 12 colours in my palette. For most pictures I fewer colours. This picture used about 7 colours.
Thank you to my client H for the commission and for allowing me to post this image here.
I’ve sketched around the Broadway Market area before. See this link for a sketch of Climpson Coffee, and here is a sketch done at E5 bakery on the other side of London Fields.
North entrance to the Woolwich Foot Tunnel, E16
The North entrance to the Woolwich foot tunnel stands isolated on a traffic island.
The Woolwich Foot Tunnel opened in 1912, and is still open today, 24 hours a day. It connects the North and South sides of the River Thames.
I walked through the tunnel on an adventure exploring Docklands, inspired (once again!) by a fascinating article on the “London Inheritance” site.
My expedition started at London Bridge pier, with a trip down the Thames on the riverboat. This seemed the simplest way to get to the docks. It takes about 50 minutes to go from London Bridge to Woolwich.
Everyone gets out at Greenwich, but it’s well worth going a bit further. The boat is empty, the Thames is huge, and the sky opens out.
The river boat pier at Woolwich is on the South side of the river. I was keen to explore the North side, so I walked a little way to find the entrance to the foot tunnel. There is also a ferry, but I wanted to experience the foot tunnel.
The South entrance to the foot tunnel is hard to find. It’s crammed into a dark space behind the leisure centre. It looks somewhat dingy and derelict.
You have the option of the lift or the stairs. I followed the arrow to the stairs. The stairs are round the back. You have to find your way in, sidling between the wall of the leisure centre and the columned entrance to the tunnel. I can’t help feeling that the constructors of the tunnel would be appalled that their ornate entrance had been obstructed in this way.
By this time I was rather doubting the wisdom of this undertaking, as the old building seemed so abandoned, and the entrance was so dark. However, the stairs were brightly lit, and it all seemed feasible. So down I went.
The tunnel itself is marvellous: all bright and clean, with amazing acoustics. I could hear the distant voices of people ahead of me.
On the North side there is a different world. The North entrance, unlike its Southern counterpart, stands proud and isolated on an expanse of concrete. I sat down and sketched it.
The building stands on a traffic island which is a junction of many routes. The A117 takes heavy traffic onto the pier, to load onto the Woolwich Ferry. There’s a bus, the Superloop SL2 ,which goes to Walthamstow. People walk from the bus to the foot tunnel.
The signpost on the left of my drawing indicates the long distance footpath “The Capital Ring”. I followed this route along the Thames a little way. The path is cut off after the Galleons Point Housing development. Signs say that the lock gates are being maintained. So the route returns to the main road and passes over the spectacular bridges across the docks.
The bridges offer a view directly down the runway of London City Airport. When I walked past, some boys were enthusiastically photographing the aircraft on their mobile phones.
The other direction from the airport, looking toward the Thames, is a scene which seems to define what we mean by “brown field site”.
In the distance on the left, you see the housing developments round Gallions Reach. The quantity of space round here is astounding. And the docks are enormous.
I walked on over these immense bridges over the docks. An oncoming bus tooted cheerfully. I looked up to see the driver smiling a friendly greeting. Perhaps I looked a little lonely and cold. The bus rushed on. I felt warmer.
On the other side of the bridge I warmed up in the “Wild Bean Café” (recommended) and then made my way to Gallions Reach DLR station and thence to central London.
If in need of wide open spaces and a bit of distance from the problems of the City, then a trip downriver is definitely the thing.
Nyon, view from the castle
Standing on the ramparts of the castle at Nyon, I look towards Lake Geneva.
The tower in the picture is at the junction of Rue de Rive and Passage des Pirates, Place Abraham HERMANJAT 1862-1932. I can find its position on a map, but it is unremarked and seems not to have a name. If there is any citizen of Nyon out there who can identify it, I’d be very grateful.
Lake Geneva is in mist, in the background of the picture. The mist came and went as I was sketching. It was extremely cold.
Nyon is easy to navigate because it is on a slope, from the train station at the top of the map down to Lake Geneva at the bottom of the map.
The map above came from the Nyon Tourist Office who also offered a leaflet reminding me that part of the action in the Tintin book “L’Affaire Tournesol” took place in Nyon. This book is called “The Calculus Affair” in English. On page 21, you can see the the white car which takes Tintin and Haddock along the lake. It has Vaud number plates (“VD”).1 The fire engine which rescues them from the ruins of the house on page 27 is, according to the tourist office, carefully preserved in a local museum.
I read the Tintin books assiduously as a child, and again, in French, years later. I think the pictures influenced my drawing style, and may be why I like to draw in pen and wash today. So as well as being a record of a moment spent on the freezing battlements of Nyon Castle, the drawing above is my small homage to the great Hergé.
- The images from the Tintin books are protected by copyright, so I am not including them here. But do have a look if you have a copy of the book at home. ↩︎
Climpson & Sons – Broadway Market E8
Here is a sketch of the coffee merchant Climpson & Sons, on Broadway Market in Hackney.
I was sitting at a table in the café opposite, which is called “Route”.
Climpsons are a coffee merchant and roastery based in East London. They roast their coffee in Walthamstow, and their HQ is just the other side of London Fields from Broadway Market.
They were doing a brisk trade as I sketched, and people drank their coffees on the benches outside.
I did most of the sketch on location and finished it at my desk.
Sketching in Switzerland November 2024
Here are postcards from Switzerland, sketched quickly on 4″ x 6″ watercolour postcards.
It was foggy in the valley, and clear at 1000m.
One day, starting early, my hosts dropped me in the village of Vuiteboeuf, which is at the lower end of the Gorges de Covatannaz. I walked up, through the fog. It took about an hour and a half. I’d intended to sketch and I had my watercolours with me. But the fog made it surprisingly cold, and I didn’t want to stop or I would freeze. I was warm so long as I kept walking. So I made very quick sketches using Derwent “inktense” watercolour pencils. Here are my sketches in video format.
Here is the view over the Gorge, from the fields at the top.
My visit took me to Nyon, on the shores of Lake Geneva. I made a quick sketch from the walls of the castle. Did you know that the Tintin story, “The Calculus Affair” was set in Nyon? The tourist office made much of this connection.
Switzerland is beautiful in the Autumn. Thanks to my hosts at the Hotel de France, Vaud, for their hospitality.
2 Morocco Street, Bermondsey, London SE1
Bermondsey is an area of London just to the south of London Bridge. I had tea at the bookshop and café called “Morocco Bound”. From a table outside Morocco Bound, I sketched the building opposite.
As you see, on the ground floor there is a motor repair shop, “R.W. Auto’s”.
RW Autos is Southwark’s top garage offering a range of car services including MOT’s, repairs and servicing. Our Southwark garage has been established since 1969 and serves a plethora of private and corporate clients. Our team provide you with a friendly, reliable, personal, efficient, and affordable service.
RW Autos website
The names of the streets round here indicate the historic industry of the area: tanning and leather making: Leathermarket Street, Tanner Street, Morocco Street.
I was sketching on Morocco Street. Morocco is a type of soft leather. It is used for gloves and wallets, for example. It is also used for book bindings, hence the name of the café: ‘Morocco Bound”. According to the “Medieval and Early Modern Orients (MEMOs)” scholarly site1, Morocco leather was originally “a kind of extremely fine, soft, hard-wearing, and richly dyed sumac-tanned goatskin, originating in the Sokoto region of northern Nigeria, transported across the Sahara and exported to Europe by Maghrebi, particularly Moroccan, merchants.”. This was in the 16th and 17th centuries.
This luxury product was greatly imitated over the following years, so that “by the turn of the nineteenth century, nearly all obvious distinctions between imported and locally produced morocco leather had been erased, and to many modern curators, ‘morocco’ refers either to the distinctive grain, or simply to goat leather bindings, whatever their origin.”
Books are still bound in “morocco leather” today.
The phrase “Morocco bound” occurs in a song from the 1942 film “Road to Morocco” with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. Here is an extract:
We may run into villains but we're not afraid to roam
Because we read the story and we end up safe at home
Certainly do get around
Like Webster's Dictionary we're Morocco bound
We certainly do get around
Like a complete set of Shakespeare that you get
In the corner drugstore for a dollar ninety-eight
We're Morocco bound
Or, like a volume of Omar Khayyam that you buy in the
Department store at Christmas time for your cousin Julia
We're Morocco bound....
It was only when I started looking at the building carefully that I noticed the horses’ heads. It turns out these are a bit of a mystery.
The mystery of the Horses’ Heads
I found this 1976 photo in the London Picture Archives, reproduced here with permission:
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
You see Number 2 on the right of the photo, looking very much as it does today. Except that there are no horses’ heads. When did they appear?
Various websites2 suggest that Number 2 Morocco Street was “once a smithy”. If this was a smithy with horses’ heads in (say) the early twentieth century, then someone removed them before the photo was taken in 1976, and has put them back some time afterwards. Or the building became a smithy after 1976, in which case it must have been one of the very few left in London at that time. Or the horses’ heads are a recent decorative addition and not related to the original purpose of the building atall. It’s a mystery. Next time I am in the area I will go and enquire at R.W. Auto’s.
- Medieval and Early Modern Orients (MEMOs) is an AHRC-funded decolonial project that seeks to further knowledge and understanding of the early interactions between England and the Islamic Worlds. AHRC is the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The quotations come from an article on their site entitled “Morocco Leather and Material Understandings of the Maghreb in Early Modern Britain” dated 14 November 2022 on this link: https://memorients.com/articles/morocco-leather-and-material-understandings-of-the-maghreb-in-early-modern-britain ↩︎
- Various websites suggest that this building was once a smithy. Here are the links:
Layers of London: https://www.layersoflondon.org/map/records/morocco-street. “2a R.W.Autos with horses heads was a smithy/farrier”
Bermondsey Boy: http://www.bermondseyboy.net/viewtopic.php?t=260. This website includes a photo from 2015 – with horses heads, and the commentary. “RW AUTO’S The two horse heads above the front of this garage workshop are the last clue that is was once a smithy – a blacksmiths.” This website also includes a 1968 photo which has no horses heads. ↩︎
Vauxhall Tea House Theatre, SE11
The Vauxhall Tea House Theatre is one on my favourite places. It is a “tea house by day, theatre by night”. Here is a sketch of the outside:
Here is a sketch of the interior by day:
There are winged chairs you can sink into, wooden tables you can work at, magazines and newspapers you can read. There is tea. There is cake. There is at least one cat.
It’s a short walk from Vauxhall station. Definitely worth a visit.
Above is from their Summer 2024 programme.
From the Tea House Theatre website:
“We are trying to be different. We will not hurry you. If you visit us on your lunch break, then have one, you will be more productive in the afternoon. If you want to have a meeting, we will not disturb you. If you are ‘working from home’, we have wifi. If you have children, we have highchairs, a chest of toys, and milkshakes. We always have the daily papers, so please, relax, and share in what we are trying to create, take a load off, and have a cuppa.”
Magnificent!
Inner Hebrides: Sketch and Sail – October 2024
I’m just back from an invigorating week on “Sketch and Sail”with fellow artist Alice Angus and a group of guests, all sketching and learning. We were hosted by the marvellous crew of the Lady of Avenel, who managed the ship and provided all our meals. Our voyage was around the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides, see maps below. We had amazing fun, laughed a lot, got wet, got dry again, got blown about, and enthusiastically sketched the experience. Everyone was very productive: lots of pictures were made, sketchbooks were filled, postcards were painted and sent.
Alice and I ran workshops on brushstrokes, rapid sketching, outline drawing, sketching kit, painting sea and sky and many other exercises. We all shared thoughts and ideas on tools and techniques, and everyone learned a lot, including me. We also did an experimental workshop on sketching in the dark.
Here is a map of where we went.
On this post is a selection of my work from this voyage. For more about the ship, and future plans, see the Lady of Avenel website.
I travelled North on the Caledonian Sleeper, and did some sketching on the train.
The guests came on board in Oban, and we set off in the evening for the week’s voyage.
Here is a selection of my sketches from the voyage.
At Sanna Bay there is a large sandy beach, and a settlement of a dozen or so cottages. Here is a sketch made as we approached Sanna Bay:
I walked into that scene, through the sand-dunes, in search of a post box. Against all expectations, I found one.
At Eigg there was a spectacular sunrise.
With a strong wind in our sails we reached 8 knots on the journey south from Eigg to Iona.
On the island of Iona, I sketched a boat on the beach.
On the way back to Oban from Iona we landed at a vast sandy beach called Tràigh Gheal. There were showers of rain.
Here’s a photo, showing the Lady of Avenel at the anchorage at Tràigh Gheal. We reached the beach by rubber dinghy.
I used a JP Purcell sketchbook. Here’s a quick flick-through:
All of this was powered by a strong North Westerly wind, and Tom’s cooking. Tom continued cooking even as the North Westerly gusted Force 7, and produced a hot meal for hungry sailors every evening, soup for lunch and cooked breakfasts. He made the sour dough bread every day in the ship’s galley. I found this hugely impressive.
In case you are curious, here are night sketches. The lights are done using wax crayon.
Here are some snapshots from the voyage.
We’ll be running Sketch and Sail twice in 2025.
- Trip 1: 25th of May to the 31st of May 2025, and
- Trip 2: 31st August to the 6th of September 2025.
If you are interested or would like more information, please contact me or register your interest via the Lady of Avenel Website.
Hoxton Trust Community Garden – Clock Tower, London N1
Hoxton Street is busy with market stalls, shops, cafés. People walk to and fro. If you walk North, there’s a small garden on the right, behind a fence. Above the trees there’s this odd white tower. What is it? The gate is open and you can go in.
This is the Hoxton Trust Community Garden. Their website tells me that the Clock Tower was rescued from the Eastern Fever Hospital which was built 1869-1871. It is made of wood, and is possibly older than the hospital.
The clock tower sits on a framework made of steel girders. On the day I was there, the clock had stopped at half-past six. So in a timeless interlude, I sketched from a wooden bench amongst the trees.
Near the bench is a small monument to the “Hoxton Five”. Who were they?
“One was stabbed, and his four friends were killed in a car crash returning from the funeral.”
- Matt London on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/londonmatt/14607912428
The Hoxton Community Trust is a registered charity “working to make Hoxton and Shoreditch a better place”. According to their website, they provide free legal advice and assistance to people who need it. They maintain this community garden for the benefit of everyone. The charity was established in 1983: “At the time, Hoxton was very unfashionable, with high levels of poverty and a very poor quality urban realm”, their website says. They bought and renovated three buildings, 150-156 Hoxton Street, adjacent to the garden. These buildings are now let out. Rents from these buildings supplement the income of the Hoxton Trust, which is also funded by grants from the National Lottery, Hackney Council, and other sources (2023). The work of the Trust is also supported by volunteers, some of whom work in the garden.
The garden is lovely. There are fruit trees and a herb garden, and plenty of seats. A sanctuary.
Jane Sketching 
