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:
Vauxhall Tea House Theatre, 12″ x 9″ pen and wash original. [sold]
Here is a sketch of the interior by day:
Vauxhall Tea House Theatre, interior with cat. 12″ x 9″ pen and wash original. [Sold]
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.
“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!
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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.
Maps showing our route [map (c) Open Street Map contributors]
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.
Scottish highlands, sketched in the sleeping cabin on the train.Waiting for the bus from Fort William to ObanQuick sketch in a café in ObanSketching on the journey to Oban
The guests came on board in Oban, and we set off in the evening for the week’s voyage.
Leaving Oban, 6th October 2024. There was fine rain, some of which landed on the picture.Sketch map
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.
Here is the post box at Sanna Bay. Collections 9am Monday to Friday, and 7am on Saturday.Here is the card I posted, which reached London in two days.
At Eigg there was a spectacular sunrise.
Sunrise over the Isle of Eigg, watercolour and collage.
With a strong wind in our sails we reached 8 knots on the journey south from Eigg to Iona.
The sails are full on the journey 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.
Lady of Avenel at Tràigh Gheal
I used a JP Purcell sketchbook. Here’s a quick flick-through:
Sketchbook 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.
Tom’s cooking on the ship: cake for hungry sailing sketchers: and sourdough!
In case you are curious, here are night sketches. The lights are done using wax crayon.
Here are some snapshots from the voyage.
The art gallery on GometraApproaching Staffa, Fingal’s CaveThe abbey on IonaLady of Avenel off Sanna BayWorkshops done and crossed off the list!
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.
Hoxton Trust Community Garden N1- Clock Tower, sketched 29 August 2024 in Sketchbook 15
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.”
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.
Sketching in the Hoxton Community Trust Garden.Sketchbook 15
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This is the tower of St Anne’s Church Limehouse, seen from the south. St Anne’s is a church designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, consecrated in 1730.
St Anne’s Church Limehouse tower, sketched 28 August 2024 in sketchbook 15
This tower shows the marine connections of this church:
The prominent tower with its golden ball on the flagpole became a Trinity House “sea mark” on navigational charts and the Queens Regulations still permit St Anne’s Limehouse to display the White Ensign”.
Wikipedia (1 October 2024)
White ensign
The White Ensign is definitely flying. In my drawing the flag is blowing away from me, so you can’t see it well. It is the flag flown by British Navy ships and certain navy-related buildings on land, of which St Anne’s in one.
The golden ball is clearly visible on the flagpole, the “sea mark” mentioned in articles about the church. I had a look to see if I could find St Anne’s on a navigational chart. The Port of London Authority offers navigational maps of the Thames – but sadly St Anne’s is not shown as a “sea mark” on any of them.
Detail from Chart 319 from the Port of London Authority. The red circle where St Anne’s is, but it’s not shown as a “sea mark”.
The church has a lovely quiet garden. I sketched from the wooden seat, watched by a robin.
Sketchbook 15
Here are other sketches I’ve done around Limehouse and Wapping, near here:
This is the Limehouse Accumulator Tower, seen from Mill Place, London E14.
Limehouse Accumulator Tower, sketched 21 August 2024, in Sketchbook 15
In the 19th century, this building provided hydraulic power to machinery in the Limehouse docks. Hydraulic power is a way of transmitting energy from one place to another.
The problem at the time was that steam engines could generate motive force, but only where they were. You could build a big powerful steam engine, but you couldn’t put a steam engine next to every crane, capstan, or set of lock gates. You also didn’t want to fire up a steam engine every time someone wanted to use the lock gates. So you had to find a way of transmitting the power from the steam engine to the machinery which used it. And you had to find a way of storing the power so it was available on demand. Before the use of electricity was common, power was transmitted using pressurized water.
The steam engine located in this building was used to pump water into the adjacent accumulator tower, by lifting a heavy weight. The heavy weight was a neat fit on top of the water inside the tower and pushed the water down. Water does not compress. So the weight just sat there, applying pressure to the water. The pressurised water was distributed around the docks in thick cast-iron pipes. When the lock-keeper wanted to operate the lock gates they opened a tap and the force of the pressurized water opened the gates. Then they closed the taps. Far away, the weight moved down very slightly in the accumulator tower. Eventually the steam engine was used to pull the weight up to the top again.
That’s 19th century hydraulic power. Power is transmitted by pressurised water in cast-iron pipes: the original, functional, steam-punk.
I find it marvellous. I’ve drawn the much bigger London Hydraulic Power station here. The Limehouse building is smaller. It was built in 1869, one of several in the area at the time. It was restored in 1994/5, but sadly the weight and machinery are removed. There is a detailed history of the building on this link from the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society.
Sketching the Limehouse Accumulator Tower. The modern Docklands Light Railway lines run over the Victorian bridge to the left, the bridge to the right is disused.
Standing in Mill Place to make this sketch, I became aware of all the history that is embedded in walls. The one in front of me had been altered, rebuilt, and amended several times. A bit had been added on top. Plants lived there. A graffiti artist had made their mark on the crumbling stone.
I was standing under two bridges, both 19th century. Both survivors. One holds the modern Docklands Light Railway. The other had wonderful strong vaulting. But it held no railway. I walked around trying to find out where it went. The Google aerial view confirms what I suspected: it is a ghost railway. On the bridge there is verdant greenery where the railway used to be. It goes across a second sturdy bridge, over the A13, and then stops.
Vaulting on the bridge Verdant greenery, but no railway. (Accumulator tower in the background)A sturdy railway bridge across the A13 carries no railway.The railway bridges with no railway
Here are some maps which show the position of the Accumulator Tower and the absence of a railway (click to enlarge).
In this whole area the works of Victorian engineers make themselves felt. Each bridge is a triumph of the bricklayers’ skill: not only strikingly beautiful, with clean curves and neat detailing, but also enduring, powerful and functional 150 years later.
Sketchbook 15map (c) OpenStreetMap contributors: click to go to the map
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Vanessa from 4G wines saw one of my maps online, and contacted me to ask if I could do a special one for them – for a wine label! I was thrilled at the idea of having my artwork on a wine label, and set to work.
Vanessa was somewhat mysterious about how the map was to be used. I was curious. She invited me to the London launch of their vintage so I could see it in person, when the bottle design was to be unveiled.
The event was at the Banksy gallery on the Charing Cross Road. On display was the 2018 vintage named “Going, going, gone”. The name is a reference to a 2018 event at an auction house. A Banksy painting, “Girl with a Balloon”, apparently started to self-destruct by feeding itself through a shredder embedded in the picture frame. The shredding process started immediately the auctioneer’s hammer came down to mark the sale of the work, hence “Going, going, gone”.
4G make their bottles into intriguing works of art. The label on the bottle is a beautiful design by the artist Sebastian Blinde, showing elements of South African nature.
label design by Sebastian Blinde
The secret in this vintage is the map – my map! – made visible by shining ultra-violet light onto the label.
Secret map behind the label
It was such fun to see it. There is an X on the map to mark the position of an original Banksy mural “Girl with a Balloon”.
The inscription below the map reads: “EN WAT MET LIEFDE GEDAAN WORDT, DAT WORDT GOED GEDAAN”
This is another subtle artistic reference. It is a quote from a letter of Vincent van Gogh written on 3 April 1878, according to the website of the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam on this page of his letters.
“And what is done with love, is done well.”
An excellent motto, for both wine and art.
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Here is a sketch of the remarkable pub, The Lord Napier, now the Lord Napier Star.
As you see, the top of the pub is covered in street art. I had fun trying to copy it. The original art is done at large scale with a spray can. My drawing is at small scale with watercolour and gel pens.
The pub has history. It has been a working pub, derelict, a rave venue, a squat. Now it is back to being a pub again.
Hackney Wick is in East London between Victoria Park and the Olympic Park.
Hackney Wick is on the East side of London, 20 min walk from the Stratford railway station, and on the Hackney Wick overground.Hackney Wick is between the Olympic Park and Victoria Park.
I have walked and run through there at intervals over the last twenty years. It has changed remarkably. The company I use for printing my artwork moved over there about 5 years ago, from a location in central London. I thought “what!” and “why?”. Now I realise that they were at the start of a trend. They were wise. The area is on the up. It used to be somewhat derelict and somewhat dodgy. Now the old buildings are taken over by new businesses, and there are cranes everywhere, constructing buildings where there were coal depots, docks, builders yards, heavy industry.
Map at the bridge to the Olympic Park.
There are new residential buildings, at human scale of 3 to 5 stories, with footpaths and green spaces in between, and commerce at ground level. The commerce is, yes, coffee shops, but also gyms, shared office spaces, businesses to do with the film industry, music and film studios, a bakery, and what looked like scenery painting studios. It felt as though real things happened there, new businesses moving in, people living near where they worked, businesses springing up to serve the people who live there.
New businesses adapting the spacesNew housing, built and under constructionNew businesses in old buildingsDwellings in old buildingsNew businesses in old buildingsA peaceful cafe “The Ethical Bean” Dace RoadA walk around Hackney Wick
I found it cheering and energising. And I recommend the café I found: “The Ethical Bean” on Dace Road.
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Here is the “Prospect of Whitby” pub by the Thames in Wapping.
“The Prospect of Whitby” sketched 21 August 2024 at 2pm, the first picture in Sketchbook 15
The “Prospect of Whitby” is the name of a ship.
The coal boat, “Prospect of Whitby”, from the pub sign.
There is an informative entry about the whole area in “The London Inheritance” website. He writes:
“The pub was originally called The Pelican and the alley and stairs down to the river at the side of the pub to the right are still named Pelican Stairs.“
This structure is visible from the North side of the Regents Canal at Coal Drops yard. It was a “water point” for replenishing the boilers of steam engines. The top housed a water tank.
Waterpoint, seen from the Regents Canal towpath at Coal Drops. August 14th 2024, in sketch book 14
Here’s a map to show where it is. I’ve seen this structure often when walking along the canal, and it’s been on my “sketch-list” for a while, so I was glad that a co-incidence of weather and time gave me the opportunity to sketch it.
Waterpoint, circled.
I was sketching from the Regents Canal towpath right next to St Pancras Lock.
Sketching Waterpoint, looking south across St Pancras Lock.
It turns out that this structure is open to visitors from time to time. By an amazing co-incidence, one of the visiting days was the weekend after I did my sketch. The kind and informative guides there patiently answered the many questions I had, and allowed me to photograph their video and their display boards.
For me, the really fascinating thing about this structure is that it has moved. It was not always in this location. It used to be next to St Pancras Station. It was built around the same time as the station, 1870. In 2001 it was moved North, to its current location.
It was designed by team of Sir George Gilbert Scott, who designed the St Pancras Hotel. Since its purpose was to fill the tanks of steam trains, it was right next to the railway lines. You can see it here:
Photo of a video shown at the Waterpoint.
Here it is on an 1871 map: (click to enlarge)
my annotations to show the original position next to St Pancras, and the current positionOn the 1871 map it is labelled “Pumping House”1871 map on display at the Waterpoint (copyright National Library of Scotland)
I think I can spot it on this archive aerial photo from 1964. Here is the link to the picture:
The water point is just beyond the far right hand edge of the St Pancras train shed, in the centre left of the photo on the link above.
Here are some low resolution images to help you find it.
Detail from the aerial photo above. The gas holders shown in these photos have also moved.
Here are modern maps annotated to show the original position and the current position:
Google map. Waterpoint moved A to B.Waterpoint moved A to B. Gasholders moved X to Y. map (c) openstreetmap contributors
To move it, the original Water Point was cut horizontally into three sections. The lower section was left behind. A new lower section was built in the new location. The middle and upper sections went by road to the new location and were stacked on top of the newly built lower section. You can see, by changes in the bricks, the joins between the sections.
The new lower section is clearly visible.The line of new bricks at the top marks the join between the middle and upper sectionsView of the south side of the Waterpoint, annotated to show the sections
On the side of the Waterpoint visible from the canal, there is a clear “roof” pattern in the bricks, which I noticed when sketching it.
This marks the position of a shed that was fastened to the structure in its original position. See the pictures below.
Original position – note the shed on the left What was left when it was moved.The display boards show the project to move the Water Point. These are 2001 photos.
These photos and maps show how much the area has changed. See all the gas holders! They were constructed on the south side of the Regents Canal, because that’s where the gas works was. They originally held coal gas, which is carbon monoxide and hydrogen, manufactured from coal. Until 2010 they were a landmark for anyone who made this journey into Kings Cross regularly.
Here’s a frame from the 1963 film “Alfie” captured by @runningthenorthernheights, showing the gasholders in their original position.
Thanks to @runningthenorthernheights
The gasholders were decommissioned in 2000, but several of them couldn’t be destroyed because they were listed, so they just stood there for ten years. Then they were dismantled, stored, preserved and reconstructed in the years 2010-2015. They are now on the north side of the Regents Canal. Gas holder No. 8 was the first to be reconstructed, in 2015. It surrounds a small park. Gas holders 10, 11 and 12 followed, surrounding luxury apartments, part of the Kings Cross development. (https://www.kingscross.co.uk/gasholder-park)
Gasholders seen from the top of the Waterpoint, August 2024. I did the sketch from the far side of the canal.
Here are more photos from my visit to Waterpoint in August 2024.
Ball cock in the (now empty!) tank on the topView from the topView from the topThe “chimney” up close. The guide is explaining that it is purely decorative. It is solid: there’s no “chimney”.
I was very glad to have the opportunity to visit this quirky building. Recommended!
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Across the water from Media City UK, is this striking building.
IWM North, sketched from Media City UK in Sketchbook 15
This is “IWM North“. I enjoyed the way the vast curves of the building were echoed in the humble shape of the deckchairs.
The architect is Daniel Libeskind. It was his first UK building, constructed in 2002. It represents a shattered globe: it’s been put back together, but it will never be the same again.
Here is work in progress on the sketch, the view across the water:
Sketching IWM North from Media City.The marvellous curves of Media City UK
On the radio many years ago, I heard a director of the Imperial War Museum say that he was director of an establishment whose name contained three words each with negative connotations: “Imperial” “War” and “Museum”. I note with interest, therefore, that it is now branded “IWM”. “Imperial War Museums” has 5 sites: IWM London (in Lambeth), HMS Belfast on the Thames, the aircraft museum in Duxford, The Churchill War Rooms in Whitehall, and this one, the IWM North.
Sketchbook 15
Tragedy, for me, is not a conflict between right and wrong, but between two different kinds of right.
Peter Shaffer, playwright.
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