I went down to the river to find the sun. It was there, flooding the North side of the Thames, and so were an extraordinary number of tourists.
But who can blame them? The city was looking clear cut and perfect, there was a slight haze in the distance, a blue sky, and a low golden sun. I stopped by The Tower, and admired Tower Bridge, as everyone else was doing. Then I looked the other way, and saw the towers of the City.
From left to right: 22Bishopsgate (the tallest), the Cheesegrater, the Scalpel, the Gherkin.
I enjoyed the fact that you can see the pollarded trees and the chimneys of the buildings of the Tower of London, in front of the skyscrapers. The lower, pointed building, just to the left of the Gherkin, is the former headquarters of the Admiralty. Samuel Pepys (1633 – 1703), who wrote the diaries, worked there. This building is now an upmarket hotel.
The castellations in the foreground are part of the Tower of London.
The colours used are Cobalt Blue, Burnt Umber, and Mars Yellow, all Daniel Smith watercolours.
This drawing took about an hour, drawn and coloured on location.
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Here is St Andrew Undershaft, constructed in 1532. It survived both the Great Fire of London, and the Blitz. Next to it is a branch of Lloyds Bank. Behind, with its huge reflective walls, is the Scalpel Building, 52 Lime Street EC3, finished this year. Reflected in the walls of the Scalpel is 30 St Mary Axe, The Gherkin, finished in 2003.
On the West side of the Square, diminished by the monumental canopy of the Leadenhall Building, is a Victorian statue entitled “NAVIGATION”. Navigation is a big strong man, inadequately clad for Northern seas, but he doesn’t mind. In his right hand he grasps the ship’s wheel. In his left arm, he cradles a ship. Next to him, incongrouously, is a multi-coloured wooden column. At first I thought it was some kind of antenna. Then perhaps it might be a 21st century version of a Barber’s Pole, no longer red and white only, but now yellow too. But there is no Barbers Shop. I was just about to conclude it must be “Art”, when I saw the explanatory notice, low down and in shadow. It is a Maypole.
“Until the 16th Century, a famous maypole used to be put up on feast days at the corner of St Mary Axe. Its shaft overtopped the original church, which got its name St Andrew Undershaft as a result. When not in use, the shaft was stored in an alley near here, which became known as Shafts Court”.
“NAVIGATION” and the Maypole.
About 45 minutes on location, finished at home. It was very cold. Colours used: Mars Yellow, Perinine Orange, Prussian Blue, Perylene Maroon. The sky is dilute Prussian Blue.
Here is work in progress and my location:
Work in progress: ink
Where I was
Behind me: the Aviva Building, the Cheesgrater and 22Bishopsgate
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Here is the Scalpel Building, seen from Bank Junction.
The statue in the centre of the bottom of the picture is neither a statesman, nor a warrior, nor a monarch. It celebrates an engineer: J.H. Greathead, “inventor of the travelling shield that made possible the cutting of the tunnels of London’s deep level tube system”. There is a picture of his invention on the plinth.
The “travelling shield” depicted on the plinth of Greathead’s statue in Cornhill.
Greathead’s idea was to make the shield cylindrical, rather than rectangular as it had been previously. He also invented ways to spray concrete and grouting on the walls, and also to pressurise the tunnel, so as to make the workers a bit safer from cave-ins. His later shields were equipped with cutting jaws or teeth, to excavate the earth ahead.
“Most tunnelling shields are still loosely based on Greathead’s Shields design” says Wikipedia, including the “Tunnel Boring Machines” which are used, for example, for Crossrail.
The statue was created in 1994, and stands, appropriately enough, on a ventilation shaft for the Waterloo and City Line.
J.H. Greathead on his plinth/ventilation shaft.
I drew this picture standing at One Poultry. Here are maps:
Sketch map showing the sightline
Incomprehensible map next to where I was standing
Visitors’ guide, conveniently placed at Bank, but showing none of the very conspicuous recent buildings. It’s hard to keep pictures up to date in the City, especially if the picture is made of steel.
Here is work in progress:
Work in progress, the scene from One Poultry.
About 45 minutes. The sky is Prussian Blue, very dilute. The other colours used are Mars Yellow, and Perylene Maroon, all Daniel Smith watercolours. The grey is Perylene Maroon and Prussian Blue. The traffic lights are Pyrrol Red.
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The huge new construction which is “TwentyTwo Bishopsgate” towers above the Royal Exchange. Since it was Sunday, it was possible to appreciate the vista without being trampled underfoot by financiers or overcome with traffic fumes. I took advantage of these benign conditions to do a quick sketch.
TwentyTwo Bishopsgate, and the Leadenhall Building, above the Royal Exchange.
This was a very quick sketch, about half an hour. I was not trampled underfoot. I was standing on the pavement, in a sort of an alcove, just outside Mansion House. There was still quite a bit of hustle and bustle. That’s Mansion House the building, not Mansion House the Underground station, in case you were confused. Here’s a map, the red line shows the direction I was looking.
Map showing where I was: Bank Station, outside the Mansion House.
In the drawing you can just see, rather scribbly in the foreground, the statue of the Duke of Wellington on Horseback, and to the right of him, a Christmas Tree. The Gherkin, 30 St Mary’s Axe, is just visible between the buildings.
I’ve drawn TwentyTwo Bishopsgate a few times, as it is conspicuous on the City skyline now.
St Paul’s Cathedral and the restored tower of St Augustine Watling Street.
St Paul’s Cathedral and the tower of St Augustine Watling Street
To the East of St Paul’s is another church tower, on the right of my drawing. It is what remains of a medieval church, St Augustine Watling Street. Reconstructed after the 1666 Fire of London, St Augustine was then destroyed again by bombing in 1941. The Tower was reconstructed in 1954, and made part of St Paul’s Choir School which occupies this area. The Choir School was completed in 1967, in good modernist style, but is rarely noticed, even though it is right next to St Paul’s Cathedral. The school is currently being extended, which is amazing since it occupies such a constricted site. There is scaffolding off to the right of the drawing.
I drew this sitting on a bench in “Festival Gardens” which is the lawn south of St Paul’s. It turns out that this is right on a tourist route, and groups of people passed by. A woman approached and respectfully asked if she could look at the drawing. She was interested in my picture, and said her daughter painted also. Then her companion approached and showed me a detailed picture of an alligator on his mobile phone. He said this picture was drawn by their daughter. The alligator was his pet. In the six years he had it, it had only bitten him once. But that time he needed 32 stitches.
I was just finishing the pen when a young man stopped and looked. He smiled, and went away. Then he came back and, like the woman, showed me his mobile phone. This time there was a message on it. In neat and polite English, the message told me that he was a visitor from Korea. He thought my drawing was very good and would I mind if he took a picture of it?
I said that would be fine, and held up the book so he could photograph it. Then I had a thought. I dug out one of my cards and pointed to the @janenorthcote written in clear letters at the bottom. “Instagram” I said, hoping that brand names would communicate between cultures. He nodded and smiled, and went back to join his group. Sure enough, when I’d finished the sketch, a ping on my phone announced that an Instagram message had arrived. @si_hyeonv had posted his photos, and written to say thank you.
photo credit: @si_hyeonv
Here are other photos of work-in-progress, taken by me.
ready to start the colour
Done.
Drawing took one hour, including colour. Three colours used: Mars Yellow, and the grey is Phthalo Green (BS) and Perylene Maroon, all Daniel Smith watercolours.
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Here’s another drawing on London Wall place. This is a view of the highwalk from underneath. I was standing by the new café, Barbie Green, sheltering from the rain.
The shelter was not very good, and there was a lot of wind, so raindrops arrived on the picture. I went to go in the café to finish the colouring, but no, there were “no tables”.
So I finished the drawing outdoors, sitting on a damp bench.
I very much enjoy this highwalk. It curves in all dimensions. The side walls undulate, the walkway becomes wider and narrower, and it tilts up and down. It’s made of some iron-like metal, so it has rusted and is now a deep brown. The shape of it respectfully frames the ruins of the old church.
I appreciated all this while observing, through the picture windows of the cafe, three empty tables, which remained empty for the whole time.
On the way back from the Post Office, I paused to draw the view under the new Highwalk of London Wall Place. There is a new café called “Barbie Green”.
I drew this by the water pond and the plants. sheltered by the highwalk. Other people were there too, mostly smokers. Except that people don’t smoke anymore, but wander around leaving trails of mist with strange synthetic smells, nearly but not quite vanilla.
Location of London Wall Place shown in yellow. View of drawing in red.
I have sketched in this area before. Here’s a similar view, drawn last year in the summer, just after the highwalk was constructed:
On a shopping expedition in Islington, I made a diversion through the new development: “Islington Square”, opposite St Mary’s Church. It’s not a square, more of a passage, a covered road, very high. Lots of huge empty windows wait like empty stages for the retail theatre to begin. At the end is an open-air space, also not a square, more of a rectangle. Here is a grand kitchen equipment shop, where you can buy a saucepan in copper, or other high-grade metal such as stainless steel. Then looking back towards the passage, I made a sketch:
This was a very quick sketch, about 20 minutes (that’s quick, for me). Drawn and coloured sitting on one of the benches near the kitchen shop.
As I was finishing a man emerged from the passage and announced “We have our first artist!”. He meant me. Other men followed. I asked him if he lived here, as I was interested in the flats I had been drawing. He said no, he was the Manager of the Development. I said I appreciated the fine wooden bench, which was placed in a good position for drawing. He looked at my drawing and said I should come back in different seasons – and put on a show! Good idea.
He was a busy person and walked off. One of the other men came up and very kindly offered to fetch me a cup of tea or coffee. I was just packing up though, and so declined. It was nice of him.
“Islington Square, just an eight-minute walk to Angel Underground Station, offers 263 new homes and 108 serviced apartments at a maximum height of just eight floors, fusing Edwardian grandeur and contemporary style. The build will be complemented by 170,000 square feet of retail, dining and leisure amenities including a luxury Odeon cinema and a premium Third Space gym.” (Olivier Heath, writing in “House Beautiful” April 11th 2019)
The new development is around and about the former postal sorting office, which has been empty for some time. The dates I could see in the brickwork said “1905”. The new buildings are curved, as you see in my sketch, and one group is covered in purple tiles. I thought it looked good. At least they haven’t just imitated the Victorian architecture, but courageously added something decidedly 21st Century.
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There was sun. It’s a low, Northern Hemisphere, sun. I know that in the City amongst the high-rise buildings, I will not see the sun at ground level. So the thing to do is to go up. I went to Alexandra Palace, 330ft above sea level. There’s a direct train from Moorgate.
Here’s Alexandra Palace from the South West.
Alexandra Palace, from the South-West
It was sunny, but extremely cold. There was ice on the pond by the fountains. So after this drawing I walked down the road I’d just painted, in search of warmth and coffee.
Ice on the pond by the fountain
The café called “The Phoenix” was closed 2nd to 5th Dec. The café of the Skating Rink was closed because the skating rink was closed. So at the far end, beyond the aerial, I turned left around the building and found the Theatre. Against all expectation, the doors were open. Indoors was a vast, warm, space. I walked around on the huge floor and found a coffee van which looked like the ones you see at funfairs, or airports. It was empty. The whole place was empty, and weirdly quiet. At a wooden table a knot of teenagers were working silently on what looked like, and may well have been, homework, assisted by laptops, phones and fizzy drinks.
I found someone at a desk. They found someone associated with the van. She rushed up, cheerful and apologetic. She was apologetic that she had kept me waiting. The second apology was that the coffee machine “was not working”. Oh well, tea is nice too.
Back outdoors and further round, the sun lit up the glass domes.
Alexandra Palace, from the North-East
I walked round as far as I could. The place is simply enormous, and all built of bricks. This is the place if you are planning your pop concert. Pink Floyd were here (1967). My neighbour remembers the first Campaign for Real Ale event here (1976)*. He still has the half-pint mug he was given.
Here are the locations where I did the drawings:
Here are some photos of work in progress:
The original building was destroyed by fire shortly after it was built, and then, amazingly, rebuilt. Here is a photo of a photo that was displayed in the Theatre. It shows the original building, around 1900. The tower that is prominent in my first sketch originally had a squat spire. This photo is from roughly the North East, as my second sketch. The entrance to the Theatre is on the left, and you can see the glass dome.
You can also see a train, going along the back wall of the Palace, on the lower right hand side of the picture. Evidently there was a train service right up to the door. On my walk around, I saw the former station house, now a community centre.
Here is a map of Alexandra Palace and Park now. The station is now at the bottom of the hill.
On Wednesday I went for a peregrination around Hackney, north and east of Brick Lane.
I drew this sitting on a bench on Weavers’ Fields. The tower block is Charles Dickens House. The church which you can just see is on the junction of Pollard Row and the Bethnal Green Road. It is a deconsecrated church, and looks as though it’s been converted to residential flats. The building with the roof, straight ahead, is on Derbyshire Road E2. It’s clearly been industrial in its time, now it looks vaguely high-tech. Note the long solar panel on the roof.
It was incredibly cold, about 5 degrees C. But very bright sun, so the solar panel must have been working.
I walked on back to the city. In amongst the office blocks it was warmer. I tucked myself into the angle of a building and drew this:
This is 101 Worship Street, in the beautiful row of workshops designed by Philip Webb. If I were to make the untold millions necessary, I would buy up this row and look after it. I have had my eye on it for a while, ready to campaign if it were threatened. At the far end, sketchily shown behind the cars, is a sort of font or water fountain, with a sharp angled roof. The houses are not in good repair, and evidently listed or they’d have been pulled down by now. They are surrounded by the huge developments of Hoxton and the City of London, as you see behind. This is the “fin tech” area. But these houses survive, against the odds, tribute to the utopian dreams of a previous era.
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Jane Sketching 