Category: Urban sketch

The Sekforde, Clerkenwell

I sketched The Sekforde, sitting on a step on the other side of the road.

The Sekforde, 34 Sekforde St, EC1R 0HA

The pub was closed today. It looked like a good pub. While I was sketching I received confirmation of this. Two portly men strolled past, paused, and asked me if I was waiting for the pub to open. I said I wasn’t because I guessed I was going to have to wait a long time. The men agreed, and informed me it was a good pub, and has “been here a long time”. As they retreated, one of them called back, “I was here when it opened!”

This is unlikely. This is a Georgian pub. It opened in 1829.

Back home I found out a lot more about the pub, and was then keen to visit it when it re-opens. It is privately owned, says its website, and “we aim to be an instrument of change within Britain and the world”. They do that by hosting lectures and debates on “some of the most difficult political, moral and scientific subjects of our time”. How have I not encountered them before?

They also donate all the profits to the Sekforde House Trust, an educational charity. It offers scholarships to students each year: the Sekforde Scholars. According to the Islington Tribune (2017)* this generosity is inspired by the owner’s grandmother, “eminent scientist Kathleen Lonsdale, who was from a poor Irish family but was awarded a scholarship to university in London when she was 16″.

The place underwent a redevelopment from 2015 to 2018. There is a guest suite, very modern, which is let out on AirBnB.

Here is a sketch map showing where the pub is, in case you also would like to go there, when it re-opens, for a pint and a debate:

*Islington Tribune (2017) describes the refurbishment by David Lonsdale, who bought the pub in 2015. He is a property lawyer, and lives in the area, they say.

http://islingtontribune.com/article/opening-date-for-pub-that-serves-up-pint-and-a-debate

Brewhouse Yard, Clerkenwell

Looking up, I saw the clock.

The clock on 7 Brewhouse Yard

I sat on a convenient step to draw it. It was really hard to get all those perspective lines in the right place. While I was struggling with them, a car pulled into the silent square. It was shiny, gold metallic, and very clean. It came to a halt, and rocked a bit on its tyres. A man got out and disappeared from my field of view. I assumed he was the director of one of the architecture practices round there. I continued adjusting my perspective lines. Then I saw the man walking about photographing the car with a big digital camera. The camera made that artificial shutter-click, lots of times. He was taking a lot of photographs of the car. He moved it and photographed it from a different angle. It was a Citroen CX GT 2400. That was written on the boot lid. He must have seen me looking at it, because he came over and asked, very politely, if his car was in the way of my drawing. I was astonished, drivers are usually uncaring about parking in your sightline. But this guy cared. So I smiled and said that no, it was fine, I was drawing the clock up there, but thank you very much for asking. So he went on clicking, and I went on shifting the lines on my drawing, and we co-existed happily in the square.

  • Pencil
  • Pen – note the car on the right!
  • Pen
  • Colour
  • Colour
Work in progress.

He moved the car again and I thought he’d gone. But when I packed up my stuff and was examining the house I’d been drawing, he called out to me, “Did you get it?”. He meant, did I capture the view in my drawing. I said yes, and would he like to see the picture? He would. We talked about the house. He said it’s residential. Someone lives there. The resident had just gone out, in fact.

It’s clearly the former headquarters of the Brewers Yard. The door is very splendid. The pillar on one side has hops, and on the other side, barley and hops.

  • Hops
  • Barley and hops
The doorway of 7 Brewhouse Yard

Here is a map showing where I was:

Courage on Nile St N1

This is the view looking West from the junction of Nile St and East St, in the borough of Hackney, London N1.

Courage in Nile St: the N1 Dry Cleaners, Nile St Dental Practice, Nile St Café, The Duke of W, The Makers Shoreditch overhead.

I was leaning against a wall on a wide pavement, on the corner. I judged that I was easy to avoid there, and social distance could easily be maintained. In fact, there were almost no passers-by, and those that passed were intent on their destination. I doubt they even noticed me. A woman pushing a pram stopped though, and said (from a respectful distance) how nice it was to see someone sketching. She asked what I was sketching in that particular spot. Gesturing towards my sightline, I said I liked the contrast between the smaller, older buildings and the big modern tower. I’m not sure she shared my enthusiasm. But we smiled at each other in the sun. It was a pleasure to have conversation with a stranger.

The location of the drawing, showing the sightline.

Here is a collection of photos in the area where I was standing.

Buildings at the junction of Nile St and East St.
Signs and spaces

In my drawing there is the large vertical sign which says “COURAGE”. That is a pub, now decommissioned. Its sign has deteriorated so now it is the “Duke of W”.

Just before the pub, above the Nile Café, there is a large framed portion of wall. The frame is neat tiles. It looks as though that might have once contained a picture or a slogan. Now it is blank. The street artists have drawn on the brick wall above the dentists.

Signs and spaces

This drawing took one hour, drawn and coloured on location with a bit of finishing at home. It was really hot in the sun, although the temperature was only about 10 degrees C.

Colours: Daniel Smith: Burnt Umber, Mars Yellow, Perinone Orange. Winsor and Newton: Phthalo Blue Turquoise, for the sky and mixing.

Sketchbook: Etchr

From Mitre Square

From today, Wednesday, in England we are allowed to take exercise for “unlimited time” and allowed to sit on benches in a public space. So that means I can go out and sketch. I quickly did so today, in case these permissions are revoked in the coming days.

Walking round the City was a joy: the air is clear, and the streets are empty. Mostly, the people about are working on construction sites, of which there are quite a few in the City. Construction workers are visible as they are wearing their special hi-vis outfits. I walked about enjoying the architecture, and the air, and the birdsong. I came to a small empty parklet: Mitre Square. A notice said that here was the site of the Priory of the Holy Trinity, founded 1108. There’s not a sign of it now. The nave of the abbey is now Mitre Street, said the notice.

I sat on one of the benches and drew the view.

From Mitre Square: Sir John Cass School, and the spire of St Botolphs.

I enjoyed the sequence of TV aerials – Spire – Cupola.

A woman in a face mask with a child in a face mask appeared. They both removed their face masks. She carefully placed a plastic bag on the bench, and then she sat down. The child wandered about. Then they both ate apples, and the child continued to wander about while the woman interacted with her mobile phone. A man came out of one of the nearby offices and stood on the grass, did some stretching for a few minutes, stared into the distance, and then went indoors again. While all this was going on, a large van backed onto the square, and a man unloaded a lawn mower. He then proceeded to cut the little patches of grass on the square. At the same time, two street sweepers arrived. They swept part of the square, then went to have their break. This was logical, as the person mowing was spreading grass cuttings everywhere. After he had finished, which only took about 10 minutes – it is not a large square,and there is not much grass – the street sweepers came back and swept up after him. Then they went away, and the woman and child went away, silence descended and I had the square to myself again.

In the square was a strange statue called “Climb” by Juliana Cerqueira Lake. It was white and, according to the notice, it was a cast of the tunnel she made by burrowing through a cylinder of clay. You can see it on the left of this photo:

In Mitre Square: “Climb” by Juliana Cerqueira Lake is on the left.

Today’s announcement:


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-52530518 downloaded 13th May 19:17

Map of where I was:

Arrow shows the sightline of the drawing.

Looking South to St Giles’

I drew St Giles’ Cripplegate, as seen from the window of the flat.

St Giles Cripplegate, from the North

The church is surrounded by the buildings of the Barbican estate. To the right of the church is the City of London School for Girls. Behind it in the picture you see a representation of the Barbican block called “Wallside”, and then behind that, are the office blocks of the City. In the foreground is Frobisher Crescent.

St Giles’ was damaged by enemy action in the 1939-45 conflict. Artists showed the damage. I was particularly struck by the work of Sam Carter, and William Coldstream, shown by the East London Group in their excellent and informative Twitter stream (@EastLondonGroup) – their tweets are embedded below, if you scroll down. Here’s the picture by William Coldstream, 1946:

St Giles Cripplegate (1946) by William Coldstream, in the Arts Council Collection. Thanks to @EastLondonGroup twitter stream for showing this work.

As you see in the picture above by William Coldstream, in 1946 the church itself was damaged, and it was surrounded by rubble. This picture must have been painted from the current location of the Museum of London. The damage was done in a bombing raid in about 1940. The plants have had 6 years to grow.

The Barbican was built on the area destroyed by bombing. St Giles was rebuilt.

Here is my view and my drawing in progress.

  • Work in progress
  • Drawing from the window
  • The edge of the Barbican Lake

I have drawn St Giles before:

A quick sketch of St Giles Church

Here is St Giles Church from the Lakeside Terrace of the Barbican. While I drew this, three men were shovelling mud from the bottom of the lake. The mud is black and viscous and the men were remarkably cheerful in their task. They would have made good subjects for a drawing too. But for now,…

St Giles and Bastion House

Today Urban Sketchers London held a “sketch crawl” in the Barbican. So I joined them. An astonishing number and diversity of people assembled inside the entrance of the Barbican Centre at the appointed time of 11am. I counted about 35 and then another dozen or so joined. All shapes and sizes of people, tall, short,…

St Giles’ and Cromwell Tower

Here is today’s sketch showing: London Wall – 2nd century AD Barber-Surgeons Hall – current building 1969, first hall, on this site 1441 St Giles Church – current building 1966, first church on this site by 1090 Barbican, Cromwell Tower,  Wallside and Arts Centre – 1965-82 Braithwaite House – completed around 1963 White Collar Factory…

St Giles’ Church and Shakespeare Tower

Here is a sketch from a staircase from the Barbican Podium, just outside the Dentists but just inside the old London Wall. Parts of the Roman London Wall are in the foreground, 2nd century AD. St Giles’ has Roman foundations and is much rebuilt. The church we see now is the 1966 restoration following designs…

Here are the tweets from the East London Group:

Ben Jonson House

Sketching from the window, here is Ben Jonson, part of the Barbican estate.

The people who live on the top floor of Ben Jonson have sunlit roof gardens. You can see one person enjoying his garden. He sits just at the bottom of the blue fire escape ladder.

There is also an interesting void space shown in the lower right of the picture. It was empty when I was drawing, but sometimes someone’s legs are visible, using the space for sunbathing. Sometimes they set up a table and chairs there.

Here is work in progress. I used colours: Mars Yellow, Burnt Umber, Prussian Blue and a bit of Perinine Orange.

Sun on the Podium

The view looking west:

This is looking down on the Barbican Podium.

The tower in the foreground is part of Frobisher Crescent. Frobisher Crescent itself is on the left. Ben Jonson House is on the right. On the horizon you can see Centrepoint, and the Post Office Tower.

This took 2 hours. The sun moved, of course.

Colours: Mars Yellow, Perylene Maroon, Prussian Blue, all Daniel Smith watercolours.

The queue for Waitrose

This is Whitecross Street. The people are in the well-managed queue for the Waitrose supermarket, which is underneath the building to the right.

In the foreground: Ben Jonson House, Barbican. On the left, behind Ben Jonson, in pink, is a children’s playground at first floor level, part of Prior Weston School.

Drawn looking out of the window, about an hour and a half including a phone call from a friend.

The friend called to tell me the answer to a crossword clue which had defeated me.

Colours: Mars Yellow (DS), Perylene Maroon (DS), Phthalo Turquoise (W&N)

Barbican Lakeside

A view from the residents’ gardens.

Barbican Lakeside

The building in the background is the Heron Building, luxury flats above the Milton Court Concert Hall, Guildhall School of Music and Dance. This building opened in September 2013. It replaced a public building, which was in the brutalist design of the Barbican and designed by Chamberlain Powell and Bon, It housed a fire station, Coroner’s Court, mortuary, office of weights and measures and a civil defence school, and was connected to the Barbican by a bridge at Podium level. This building was demolished in 2008, in the face of opposition from the Twentieth Century Society amongst others, and was replaced by the steel and glass tower. This new building has no bridge to the Barbican, which is a pity, in my view.

At the extreme right is City Point.

Here is work in progress:

This drawing took ages. I couldn’t get the steps right. After 30 minutes of drawing and rubbing out I restarted at 12:10 and finished 1hour30mins later.

Principal Tower and The Stage

If I look East, along a narrow angle, I can see two new tall buildings in Shoreditch: the “Principal Tower”, and “The Stage”. They are on adjacent sites, about a mile away.

Looking East: The Stage and Principal Tower

The Stage is the tall building on the left, under construction. Their website tells me this will be a “dynamic 37 level landmark for luxury living”. The reason it’s called The Stage is because the remains of the Curtain Theatre were discovered on the site. This theatre was a location for the staging of Shakespeare’s plays, and dates back to 1577. The tower is provides luxurious accommodation. The planning report says:

The scheme does not include any affordable housing, and the viability appraisal confirms that it is not possible to deliver any due to the financial burdens of excavation and archaeological work to the remains of Curtain Theatre in order to create a cultural facility.

planning report D&P/2975/02 18 December 2013, Mayor’s decision*

The architects are Perkins+Will. The developer cited on the planning application was Plough Yard Developments Ltd. That company was dissolved on 23rd Aug 2019. The current owner/developer is “The Stage Shoreditch Development Limited” according to the website “New London Development”.

The building with the truncated spire in front of The Stage is “Triton Court”, which is on the North side of Finsbury Square. The little dome is part of the same building. This dome in on the older, western, part, which was built in 1904-5. The taller part with the spire was later, 1929-30. It was the headquarters of the Royal London Mutual Assurance Society. The building interior was redeveloped in 2013-15 and is now an office development called “Alphabeta”

The tall block on the skyline to the right of picture is “Principal Tower”. This is a residential tower which, according to the website:

“..offers the opportunity to own an architectural masterpiece, equivalent to a priceless piece of art that will give constant pleasure and lasting value.”

from the sales website: PrincipalTower.com, copied on 2nd April 2020

The architect is Foster+Partners. The developer is Brookfield Property Partners. Alongside and beneath the residential tower are offices and shops, in a space called “Principal Place”. One tenant of the office space is Amazon.

Here are some pictures from the sales website:

  • Picture credit: PrincipalTower.com
  • Map of Principal Place, from the PrincipalTower website.

Here are some maps:

My sketch map showing the locations of the towers in the picture
Map downloaded from the Principal Tower website. The brown dots are “cultural locations”. The red arrow shows the sightline in the picture.

The drawing took just over 2 hours. The colours are: Phthalo Turquoise (W&N), Mars Yellow(DS), Perylene Maroon (DS) and a bit of Perinone Orange (DS).

Work in progress

*The document is on the http://www.london.gov.uk site at this link: (downloaded 2nd April 2020) Planning Application 2012/3871

Click to access the_stage_curtain_road_report.pdf

You can download the document here:

the_stage_curtain_road_reportDownload