Category: 19th Century architecture

Buildings from the 1800s, Victorian architecture.

Trinity College Dublin, corner

I was intrigued by this juxtaposition of two very different buildings, each radical in its own way. The top corners are just a few feet from each other.

A corner of Trinity College Dublin: Museum Building on the left, Library on the right with “Sphere with Sphere” in front. October 22nd 2023, in Sketchbook 13

The building on the left is called the Museum Building. It houses the Geography department, amongst others. I know this because there was a notice visible in one of its windows asking:

“Without Geography, where are you?”

This building was finished in 1852. According to the website “makingvictoriandublin.com” the style is called “Ruskinian Gothic”. The design is by Cork architects Deane, Son and Woodward, influenced by the philosophies of the English writer, artist and art critic John Ruskin, says the Making Victorian Dublin site.

Central to the design was a radical endorsement of the creative power of human happiness…the architects encouraged the freedom of their workmen [sic] in designing and executing the building’s external and internal carvings.

“makingvictoriandublin.com“

The external and internal carvings are very complex combinations of leaves and flowers. A notice inside the building tells us that all the building’s carvings are by brothers John and James O’Shea of O’Shea and Whelan and that they gathered wild flowers and animals (amazingly) to use as models.

Even as the Museum Building was being built the Dublin press recognised it as the first experiment in British and Ireland of Ruskin’s radical views – a clear demonstration of the ‘the desireableness of employing the minds of the workmen’.

This experiment’, wrote the reviewer in the Dublin Express, ‘proves the general correctness of [Ruskin’s] views, and, moreover, has resulted far better than even the most sanguine advocates of this system had allowed themselves to expect.’

“makingvictoriandublin.com“

The whole building is influenced by Venetian designs observed by John Ruskin.

The inside of the building is spectacular. As well as the soaring architecture and the fascinating patterns and arches, there are also two skeletons of elks, some dinosaur footprints, and a model of a floating crane boat. You could spend hours there sketching.

Museum Building, Trinity College Dublin, interior, 22 October 2023.

The building on the right of my drawing is a library, opened in 1967. It is in the radical style of that period: the Brutalist style. The building’s clean lines and functional appearance are characteristic of this style. The architect was Paul Koralek of ABK architects.

The library in 1967: Berkeley Library, Trinity College, Dublin: the entrance front and raised forecourt. Photo credit: Architectural Press Archive / RIBA Collections. [RIBA51354] Used with permission.

In 2017 the College ran a celebration of the library after 50 years. Their website includes pictures of the interior and furnishings. https://www.tcd.ie/library/berkeley

Two buildings talking to each other
“Sphere with Sphere”

The spherical object in my drawing is a sculpture by Arnaldo Pomodoro called “Sphere with Sphere 1982/3” according to an inscription on the pavement.

I sketched for about an hour and a half. During that time waves of people crossed the square. There were a remarkable number of tourists, some with tour guides, moving in groups.

At one point, a solitary woman approached me and asked to see the picture. She smiled and said something in her own language which sounded like a compliment. So I said thank you, and smiled back. She told me that she didn’t speak English, and held up four fingers, counting, to explain she had only been here for four days. She was from Ukraine, she said. Her hands modelled an aeroplane taking off and landing. A wide uplifted arm gesture took in the autumn sun, the buildings and the people, expressing gladness to be here. She pointed at my drawing, and nodded again, making what was evidently a positive comment and a connection. Then she said goodbye and I said goodbye.

Sketching location
Sketchbook 13

Colours used:

  • Buff titanium (all brickwork and concrete)
  • Mars Yellow (brickwork, concrete, sphere
  • Ultramarine Blue plus Lavender (sky)
  • Ultramarine Blue plus Burnt Umber (all greys)
  • Serpentine Genuine (trees)
  • a small bit of Cobalt Teal Blue and Fired Gold Ochre in the background

All Daniel Smith watercolours except the Ultramarine Blue which is Horadam watercolour.

St Mary Stoke Newington N16

“What is that spire?”

It’s just visible, on the horizon between office blocks. Some work with the binoculars and the map established that it must be St Mary Stoke Newington, some 3 to 4 miles away to the North.

“What is that spire?”

I went up there to make sure, and to have a closer look at this building which was visible at so great a distance.

St Mary Stoke Newington, the “New Church”, London N16. Sketched on October 17th 2023 in sketchbook 13, size: 10″x 8″

I sketched the church from Clissold Park.

Stoke Newington is another world, even though just 4 miles from the City. My sketching location was a few yards from the gate of the park. A succession of people entered the gate and walked along the path: old and young, solitary and in groups, noisy, meditative and with or without dogs. Each person or group carefully opened the gate, then turned round and closed it again behind them. At one point, a very elderly person approached the gate in a wheelchair. Someone who had just passed through noticed them, returned to the gate, and with a respectful flourish, opened both gates wide, to allow the passage of the wheelchair, and then carefully closed the gates again afterwards. It was all very civilised, and restored my faith in the human race.

If you wish to visit this church bear in mind that the overground lines are rather complicated in this area. The one to get is the one which goes north from Liverpool Street. The one from Shoreditch, although going in broadly the same direction, takes another route entirely and you end up in Dalston, which is also an interesting place, but different. I walked from there to Hackney Downs to find the right railway line, and discovered more as-yet-unexplored areas of London.

Overground routes in the Stoke Newington area.

St Mary Stoke Newington New Church was built in 1854-8, to the design of Sir George Gilbert Scott. His other works include the Midland Hotel at St Pancras, the Albert Memorial, Westminster Abbey, the Martyr’s Memorial in Oxford and St John’s College Chapel Cambridge, to name but four. So the people of Stoke Newington got a rock-star architect in 1854. This was because Stoke Newington had a hugely popular preacher, the Reverend Thomas Jackson, with people coming across London to hear him preach. The cost of the new church was raised by voluntary contributions1 from this large congregation.

The spire was added by Sir George’s son John Oldrid Scott, in 1890.

Stoke Newington New Church seen from Stoke Newington Church Street
The impressive interior of Stoke Newington New Church.

Across the road is the much smaller “old church” which this “new church” replaced. The old church is still there, looking like a country village church.

Stoke Newington Old Church, 17th October 2023

Now I know what that spire is, on the horizon, I think I should make another visit, to sketch the old church.

Sketchbook 13, Stoke Newington New Church

Note 1: The information about Thomas Jackson and the cost of building the New Church is from the St Mary website https://www.stmaryn16.org/history.html, downloaded 24 October 2023. For even more detail see also British History Online here: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol8/pp204-211

21 and 23 Park Street, Borough SE1 “Take Courage”

I enjoy the marvellous trigonometry of this roof, and the encouraging slogan on the wall.

21 and 23 Park Street, Borough, Southwark, London SE1. Sketched 30th August 2023, 2pm.

The slogan is for a brewery, Courage.
This house was built in 1820 for the managers of the Anchor Brewery, then on this site. The Anchor pub is on the river Thames nearby.

Map from “Borough Yards” poster (rotated to put North at the top)

The building, and its cast iron railing, is listed Grade II, number 1385752. When I searched for the list entry in the Historic England register, I found, to my surprise, that the bollards in my picture have their own special listing, number 1385753 “

“5 cast iron Canon posts 1 inscribed “CLINK 1812”

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1385753?section=official-list-entry

So I had to go back and have a closer look at them. Why were they listed? The list entry does not say. There are some bollards in London which are former cannon. It’s always a delight to discover them. They can be positively identified because you can see the indentation or hole near the base, which is where the gunpowder used to be poured in. Also they sometimes have protrusions about two-thirds down where they used to pivot on their gun-carriage. Sometimes the base is flattened on one side. Here are some examples of cannon (click the image to enlarge and see location):

I was unable to find on these 21 Park Street bollards any characteristic which confirmed they might have been cannon. The listing says they are “canon posts” – “canon” spelt like that – not “cannon”. The words “CLINK 1812” were still just about visible on the bollard which is on the right in my drawing. Here are some photos of the posts outside 21 Park Street. Click to enlarge and see captions. Do you think they might be real cannon, or perhaps the word “canon” simply describes a design of post.

“Clink” was the name of the area, from about 1127. It was called the “Liberty of Clink”. The designation “Liberty” implied that it was a civic area under the jurisdiction of the local manor, rather than the King, or the City of London. Famously, certain activities, including theatres, which were forbidden in the City of London were permitted here. The Liberty of Clink was abolished in 1889 and amalgamated into the Southwark in the County of London.

Here are some photos of work in progress on the drawing:


Drawing size 10″ x 8″ on Arches papers 300gsm NOT watercolour paper, in a sketchbook made by Wyvern Bindery.

Watercolours by Daniel Smith:

  • ultramarine blue
  • fired gold ochre
  • green gold
  • burnt umber
  • yellow line is naples yellow
  • All blacks and greys are Ultramarine Blue plus Burnt Umber

A notice on 21 Park Street reads:

The tree closest to this building
 is planted in fond memory of 
Tom Quinlivan 1934-1996 
long time resident of Park Street.

The Jamaica Wine House, EC3

I walked through the City lanes towards London Bridge and passed by the Jamaica Wine House embedded, as it seemed, in a canyon amongst towers.

Jamaica Wine House, 12:30pm 30th August 2023 in Sketchbook 13.

The Cheesegrater and 22 Bishopsgate are the office blocks in the left background and One Leadenhall is under construction on the right.

This is a very old part of the City. Although some buildings have changed, the road layout still retains something of the feeling of Dickensian London. There has been a pub or coffee house on the site of the Jamaica Wine House since 1652. The current building dates from 1868 according to the Historic England List Entry (number 1079156).

Off the picture to the left is MacAngusWainright bespoke tailors and shirtmakers, at number 4 St Michael’s Alley. This shop used to be John Haynes＆Co, the jewellers.

St Michael Cornhill is visible to the left in the background, and you can just see the weathervane on St Peter upon Cornhill in the centre of the picture.

My drawing of St Peter upon Cornhill is in this post:

Location of the Jamaica Wine House in the alleys between Lombard Street and Cornhill. (Map (c) OpenStreetMap contributors)

The picture took an hour on location and I finished it at my desk.

Chair kindly lent by MacAngusWainright

The colours in the picture are:

  • Fired Gold Ochre – my go-to colour for brick and sandstone
  • Ultramarine blue, Lavender, and Cerulean Blue for the sky
  • Burnt Umber in the sky
  • All greys and blacks are Ultramarine Blue with Burnt Umber
  • There’s a bit of Iridescent Gold on the weathervane of St Peter upon Cornhill
  • The trees in St Michael’s garden are Serpentine Genuine with some Permanent Yellow Medium.
  • St Michael on Cornhill is Buff Titanium with some Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue.

Done on Arches 300gsm NOT watercolour paper in a sketchbook by Wyvern Bindery, Hoxton. Thank you to McAngusWainwright, city tailor, for the kind loan of the chair.

London Liverpool Street, EC2

Here is Liverpool Street Station, main entrance, sketched today from outside the “Railway Tavern”.

Liverpool Street Station, 25th June 2023, 1pm. 8″ x 10″ in sketchbook 13.

The humanoid figure on the plinth is Morph, part of a temporary art trail.

The area in front of the main entrance is like an art installation in itself, a collector’s assembly of street furniture: two different types of bollards, long ribbons of fencing, several species of street lamps, and that enormous CCTV stand which is just behind Morph. It’s surprising that people can find their way into the station in amongst the obstacles. I haven’t drawn them all.

Here’s work in progress on the sketch:

Pencil
Pen
The view
Colour

This section of Liverpool Street Station was built in 1875 as the new London terminus of the Great Eastern Railway. The building on the right of my drawing is the edge of the former Great Eastern Hotel (1884), now the Andaz London Liverpool Street. The pink building in the background is an office block on Bishopsgate.

Map: (c) OpenStreetMap Contributors
Sketch map

I’ve sketched in this area before. This post contains more information about the history of Liverpool Street:

Liverpool Street Station from Exchange Square

Here are the magnificent 19th Century arches of Liverpool Street Station, seen from Exchange Square. Liverpool Street Station opened in 18751 Now the question is: what curve is that arch? I thought it might be a CYCLOID. A cycloid is the shape made by a dot on the edge of a rolling wheel. I made…

Keep reading

In 2019 I sketched the entrance to “The Arcade” which is shown on my sketch map. See this post for more about this sketch of The Arcade.

Wycliffe Hall Chapel, Oxford OX2

On a visit to Oxford recently, I stayed at Wycliffe Hall as a Bed and Breakfast guest. Wycliffe Hall is on the Banbury Road in North Oxford. It offers theological training to women and men who wish to become ordained or lay ministers in the Church of England. The hall was established in 1877, on the current site, and is named for John Wycliffe, bible translator and master of Balliol College in the 14th century.

I sketched the chapel which was added in 1896, designed by architect George Wallace.

Wycliffe Hall Chapel, 54 Banbury Road, Oxford, sketched 26 May 2023, in Sketchbook 13

There are amazing trees in this part of Oxford. The houses are large, but the trees are larger. I had my breakfast outdoors in the garden at Wycliffe Hall, looking at a gigantic London Plane. The view from my bedroom was filled with beech tree.

Breakfast and the Plane tree
Plane tree
Beech tree in Wycliffe Hall
View from the bedroom window
Trees and the spiral staircase, Wycliffe Hall
More trees seen from Wycliffe Hall

I sketched the chapel in the evening and finished the sketch the next morning.

For a sketch of the west side of the Hall, see this post.

Roofscape from Macklin Street, London WC2

Walking through the back streets of Covent Garden, I came across a row of Victorian brick-built houses. This is Macklin Street. I made a quick sketch of the roofs.

Roofscape from Macklin Street, 5th June 2023 in Sketchbook 13

While sketching I noticed a peculiar thing. There are no doors onto the street. It turns out the entrance to this row of buildings is on the nearby Newton Street, overhung by greenery and climbing plants.

The brick building in my sketch is Wimbledon Buildings, formerly Wimbledon House, built in 1893.

In 1893 the Parker Street Lodging House was
completed for 345 people. In 1896 Aldwych, Cotterell
and Lindsey (demolished in the 1960s), Powis and
Wimbledon buildings were completed for 284 people.
Twenty workshops were also provided. The scheme also
widened Parker Street and Macklin Street.

page 9, Camden Conservation Area Statement (undated) [https://www.camden.gov.uk/documents/20142/7905860/Seven+Dials+Estate+CAS.pdf]

It is now part of a “Central London residential street with a community of social housing and owner occupying flats”, with its own Twitter account. Here is a interesting picture from that Twitter feed, showing the roof gable I sketched. This is the view from Newton Street, with Macklin Street going off to the right. Note the absence of front doors. The entrances are through a gate at the left of the photo.

St Joseph’s Primary School is on Macklin Street. Its former name, Macklin Street Catholic School, is still clearly inscribed in the stonework high up. As I sketched, the children came out into the street at the end of their school day.

The Camden Conservation Area statement mentioned above is on this link . If that doesn’t work, you can download it from the link below. It is 36 pages.

seven-dials-estate-casDownload

Market Keepers’ House, Newcastle

Near Newcastle Central Station there is a new development called the “Centre for Life” Times Square, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4EP. It includes scientific research establishments, an interactive science museum for children, and various cafés and events spaces. It was built 1996-2000 to the designs of Terry Farrell and Partners on parts of an old cattle market. In the centre of the wide windswept space is this delightful building, from another era.

Market Keepers’ House, Times Square, Newcastle NE1, sketched from the Centre for Life museum café, 7th April 2023 in Sketchbook 13. About 9″ x 7″.

It is the Market Keepers’ House, 1840, designed by John Dobson, a prolific Newcastle architect of the time. His work is everywhere in the City. He designed the Church of St Thomas the Martyr, for example, and the Central Station. And he also gave us this miniature masterpiece, with its pleasing curves and symmetry. The building was restored in 1998 by Ainsworth Spark. This information is from “Pevsner Architectural Guides, Newcastle and Gateshead” by Grace McCombie 2009. We arrived at Times Square after following “Walk 5” in the book.

The people in the foreground are refuse collectors and cleaners. The two on the right are just coming off shift and the person on the left is just coming on shift. There is a lively exchange of views about their boss, a comparison of anecdotes concerning the unbelievable behaviour of the general public, and an analysis of recent decisions by the manager of Newcastle United. I couldn’t, of course, hear a word they were saying. Their articulate body language inspired me to pay attention to their conversation and include them in the picture.

St John St EC1M, numbers 55-65, looking south

Here is a sketch looking south down St John St, Islington, towards Smithfield Meat Market, which is off to the left. The building with the pointed gable is the pub “The White Bear”.

55-65 St John St, London EC1M. 18 March 2023 in Sketchbook 13
No. 99: the former “Horns”, no longer a pub.

The White Bear has “1899” written on its tall gable. “British History Online” points to two pubs built around that time on St John St, of which only the White Bear survives as a pub:

.. two public houses from the same period: the White Bear at No. 57 [], rebuilt in 1898–9 by the City of London Brewery Co., along with the adjoining house No. 59; and the former Horns of 1887 at No. 99, by Alexander & Gibson, architects []

British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol46/pp203-221

Here is a map and a photo of the ink drawing. I was sketching on a somewhat damp day, ‘rain with sunny intervals’. I went home at this point to finish the colours at my desk.

Here are the colours I used in this sketch. As you see, there are only four.

Here are a few other sketches I’ve done in the area.

77 St John St EC1M: the ASLEF building

Next time you are walking along St John St, look out for this dome, with the elephant wind vane. It’s on the West side, just a bit further North than the White Bear pub.

77 St John St EC1M, 9″ x 7″ in Sketchbook 13, 17th March 2023

I can’t find out anything about why there’s an elephant up there. The wind vane is on number 77 St John St, currently occupied by, amongst others, ASLEF the train drivers union, and “Liberation – Justice for Colombia”

JFC was set up in 2002 by the British trade union movement to support Colombian civil society in its struggle for human rights, labour rights, peace and social justice.

All JFC work is carried out in response to the demands of our partners in Colombia: the political activists, trade unionists, peasant organisations, human rights defenders, and other civil society groups who are on the front line in demanding peace and social justice.

JFC promotes links of solidarity between British and Irish trade unions and organisations in Colombia and gives a political voice internationally to Colombian civil society through our work in the British, Irish and EU Parliaments

“Justice for Colombia website: https://justiceforcolombia.org“

The building in the centre of my drawing is numbers 69, 71 and 73 St John St. These buildings are listed Grade II, list entry no: 1195730.

In 2015 there was an application to build another floor on top of number 69, for residential use. As part of the planning submission, the applicant commissioned a detailed historical study from Paul Edwards, Dip Arch (Oxford) IHBC, Historic Environment Specialist. His 15-page report provides fascinating information about the houses. For example:

Nos 69-73 are depicted in Tallis London Street View, drawn 1838-1840,
… There were three bays, at the centre an alley leading to an internal yard flanked by buildings of
three storeys and attics, each with two windows each side of the alley.
The facades had classical Georgian or Regency proportions, with tall
sash windows at 1st and second floor levels and continuous small pane shop windows at ground floor level. A gambrel roof was set behind an eaves parapet.
The northern house was leased by John Newton a cork manufacturer
who took over the whole premises and whose firm remained there
until the First World War.
The ground floor front of No 69 was re-modelled in the mid-19th century with arched openings and Ionic pilasters in stucco. The shop front of No 73 dates from 1884. There had been a fire in the cork
warehouse in 1882 which was then partly rebuilt with No 69 being extended over the alley between the two houses. In 1896 the two buildings were made into one.

Paul Edwards, 69 St John Street, Islington, Historic Asset Assessment (Version 1) February 2015.

The proposal was rejected by the Islington planning officer in 2018, after appeal.

Here is a sketch map showing where I was standing and my view-line:

St John Street is a fascinating area, with layers of history, and still evolving. I’ve sketched here a number of times.