Category: Urban sketch

Bristol Skyline from Mud Dock

I did this directly in pen, no pencil, and it took just over half an hour. Outdoors it was raining.

Mud Dock Deli (@muddockdeli) is directly above a bike shop, all wooden and modern. On another table, a coach was advising a man on how to conduct himself in a forthcoming interview. Make your career relevant. Smile. Be serious but not too serious. Be keen but not desperate. I couldn’t work out what the job was, and both men were out of my line of sight. Their conversation was a sound track to this drawing..

Cromwell Tower from Peabody Court

On a beautiful autumn day I went out to do a local sketch. I only had an hour, before I was due at the gym.

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Shoreditch skyline

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This is a view on an intriguing house which is on Clere Street in Shoreditch. A sort of greenhouse has been built on top of an older Victorian house. Very modern. As far as I can work out it is 17-18 Clere Street. There are various names on the door bell, and the top one is labelled “Nucco Brain”. Nucco Brain is a “visual storytelling company”. They make videos. But this may not be the glass structure, as that looks residential. Hard to tell.

The view is from the corner of Leonard Street and Tabernacle Street, EC2. In the foreground is a sunken bar, and then, amazingly, a bomb site used as a car park. The bomb site and the warehouse building on the left of the drawing are “EMA textiles”, with Acme bar in “EMA House” on the ground floor.

“EMA Textiles, based on the edge of Shoreditch and the City of London is a large specialist babywear and childrenswear fashion importer. We have been established for 60 years and successfully supply many high street retailers with a full range of products” (LinkedIn)

Two sketches in Oxford

Here is the corner of Catte Street. On the left is the Kings Arms, a Youngs pub. The marvellous turret on the right is part of the Oxford Martin School. This building was originally the “Indian Institute”. It was designed by Basil Champneys in 1884. The weathercock is an elephant.

It now houses the Oxford Martin School.

“The School is a unique, interdisciplinary research initiative addressing key global future challenges….A key aim of the School is to mitigate the most pressing risks and realise exciting new opportunities of the 21st century. With interdisciplinary teams of researchers from across the university, the School is working on the frontiers of knowledge in four broad areas: health and medicine; energy and environment; technology and society; and ethics and governance. Aiming to have an impact beyond academia, the School also develops wide-ranging initiatives, intellectual programmes and public events to engage with national and international policymakers, business, students and the general public.”[LinkedIn]

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On the way back from the lecture I sketched this domed building.

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This is Rhodes House. It houses the Rhodes Trust, The Mandela Rhodes Foundation, and the Atlantic Institute, according to the notice on the door.

Both pictures took about an hour. The first one was sketched from the steps of the Weston Library, about 50 mins. By the time I’d finished the pen sketch, the light had gone. So I finished the colouring in my room in LMH that evening. The light in the top right hand corner is not some amazing watercolour technique, but the light from the small and very bright desk light.

The one of Rhodes House I sketched standing up leaning on Inorganic Chemistry. I coloured it sitting down on the tiled pavement, on a copy of the Economist.

The Charterhouse, Pensioners’ Court, South West Corner

Here is a sketch from the first floor windows of manasian and co, a strategic brand consultancy with offices in Pensioners’ Court.

October 23rd 2017

I like the way the newer buildings are visible above the old ones, placing The Charterhouse in its 21st Century context. Behind me in the office, people worked on large screens, making pictures, and talking gently with each other across the desks. Outside, a gardener in a red raincoat clipped at the plants, dragging a large basket behind her, for the clippings.

A peregrination in De Beauvoir Town

I went for a long walk North.

De Beauvoir Town and De Beauvoir Estate are next to each other.

Here is a quick sketch of the very pretty houses on De Beauvoir Square, De Beauvoir Town. A tower block near Dalston Junction is just visible.

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Just around the corner is the lovely St Peter’s Church, designed by WC Lockner, 1830s. In the basement of the Church, they serve lunch every Friday.

Then I walked back South, along De Beauvoir Road.

Here is a view looking West. The houses in the foreground are on De Beauvoir Road. In the background is Portelet Court, part of the De Beauvoir Estate, 1960s, Hackney Homes.

I drew Portelet Court as reddish. When I went into the estate to find the name of the block, I saw that the cladding is a dark grey. It only looked red because the sun was setting.

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Portelet Court, over the rooves of houses on De Beauvoir Road.

I drew this picture sitting on the pavement on De Beauvoir Road. About an hour. As I was getting up a cyclist stopped. I must have looked a bit awkward. He asked if I was ok. I said yes, puzzled. “I thought you had fallen over” said the cyclist, “you don’t often see people sitting on the pavement.”

I guess you don’t.

The Charterhouse: entrance to Preachers’ Court

Here is the entrance to Preachers’ Court in The Charterhouse. The Admiral Ashmore Building is on the left.

While I was drawing this, Stanley Underhill, a Brother, came to chat. He has catalogued the Charterhouse art collection, he told me. It took him seven years. He wrote a book “Charterhouse Art” which is in the shop.

He told me the dates on the buildings. The Admiral Ashmore Building – 2000. In the background, the building with the castellations, 1840, and the ancient building on the right, 1530.

September 20th 2017

I drew this picture in a new book, which is 10 inches by 11inches.

 

The larger size meant that the picture took longer.

3 hours, drawn and coloured on location.

Bastion House from Podium Level

Bastion House aka 140 London Wall is a huge modernist monolith, reminiscent of the monolith in “2001 – A Space Odyssey”. I couldn’t find a site to draw the monolith part today, so here is a view at Podium Level, looking West towards the Museum of London.

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You see the dark undercroft, walkways and a road to a car park. Also you see the bridge that crosses London Wall.

http://postwarbuildings.com describes it thus:

“London Wall was part of a movement of amazing optimism and faith in the ideology of architectural modernism and its promise of a new built form for the city following the devastation of the blitz. It demonstrates what was possible within the breadth of vision following the Second World War and the new powers of centralised planning control. The London that emerged from the ruins of war was to be the remedy to the haphazard milieu of previous. London Wall emerged as a segment of architectural clarity, symbolic of the efforts of the public body to exercise control over the built environment and crucially attempts on the private sector.”

Architects: Powell and Moya, 1972

Here are some images of the monolith in the film “2001 – A Space Odyssey” (1968) which surely influenced, or was influenced by, architecture of the period.

 

I recently learned that Bastion House is going to be demolished, along with the Museum of London which is adjacent. That’s why I rushed out to draw it. The building is not listed. Here is the “immunity” listing, which is the reverse of a listing:

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downloaded from: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1427161

I drew Bastion House from a very convenient ledge behind an iron gate. About an hour and 20mins.

Here is a drawing of the Museum of London which I did last year:

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Bastion House is just off to the right.

London Wall Place from Salters Hall Garden

I sketched this after a visit to Salters Hall as part of “Open House London”.
Salters Hall is one of the London Livery companies, very ancient. The building was completed in 1976 to the designs of Sir Basil Spence. It was refurbished, with substantial alterations, in 2014. The architects for the alterations were de Metz Forbes Knight. There is a new entrance pavilion added on the East side, and they filled in the “undercroft” or open area that had been created by the 1970s architect. The Hall is off the drawing, to the left. I shall return to draw it.

The garden is open to the public. It will be even more accessible and obvious once the London Wall Place development is done.

No. 1 London Wall Place is in the back of the drawing. It is a development by Brookfields, The original Roman London wall is on the right, partly covered in scaffolding and plastic sheeting.
“London Wall Place is a 500,000 sq ft scheme designed by MAKE” says the website.

I have previously drawn the new bridge across Wood Street, which is part of this development.

The Charterhouse, West Wall

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Here is a sketch looking towards the Main Gate of The Charterhouse. The building with the curved gables is now the Pavior’s House, which is occupied by the Pavior’s Livery Company:

The Worshipful Company of Paviors moved into a new home in 2010. The Company has a long lease on a Grade 1 listed property formerly known as ‘The Master’s Cottage’ at Sutton’s Hospital in the Charterhouse. The property has been refurbished and is now known as Paviors’ House. – From the website of the Worshipful Company of Paviors, 14 Sept 2017.

Pavior means one who lays paving stones, and the modern livery company retains links with the paving industry.

This drawing was a lot more difficult than I expected. I was very pleased to get all the high walls in the background onto the one page. I liked the way they tower above the lower buildings. And all the architecture is different periods. The Tudor buildings of Charterhouse are on the left.

The drawing took 2hours45minutes.

Here is what it looked like before I coloured it:

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Charterhouse have now created notecards using my pictures.

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