An old brick building stands amongst the new-build. The paint on its window frames is flaking, and its brickwork is dark from the smoke of a previous age, yet it retains its dignity: a grandmother of a building.
15 Lamb’s Passage, London EC1, sketched 5th January 2024 in Sketchbook 14, 4pm, 6 degrees C
This is the former St Joseph’s School, built in 1901, which ceased operation as a school in 1977. On its roof you can see the wire netting which once must have surrounded a playground or netball court.
St Joseph’s Church is in the basement, accessed by the porch you can just see to the right of my drawing behind the furthest lamppost.
The area in front of the building is a quiet garden, in memory of Basil Hume, an English Catholic bishop. Sometimes the gate is open and you can go in. It has been arranged so that, even in this tiny space, it is possible to walk some kind of small pilgrimage, along a path, across a ditch, past a tree, and so round a corner to rest in the shaded hut. On the way you encounter a splendid birch tree with white bark, which I have seen grow from a sapling.
BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD
This quiet garden is dedicated to the memory of BASIL HUME monk and shepherd 1923-1999
Number 15 Lamb’s Buildings hosts several organisations now. The City Photographic Society uses the Church Hall in this building. It is also the registered office of the Catholic Herald. I have often heard music as I pass by, so it might also be used as a rehearsal space. There is ballroom dancing on Mondays. The smaller building to the south, on the left of my drawing, hosts a pregnancy advice centre. So this is a set of buildings is in use, actively serving the community despite the flaking paint.
I made this drawing quickly as the light faded on a cold and windy evening. After the pen, I retreated back to my desk to apply the colour.
This church stands on Fleet Street, near the Royal Courts of Justice. It is set a little back from the road, so I had not really noticed it. But it is remarkable in many ways.
St Dunstan-in-the-West, 186a Fleet Street, sketched 31 Dec 2023, in Sketchbook 14
For one thing, the architect has used every possible ornate contrivance. It was impossible for this urban sketcher to do justice to the extraordinary details. The crocheted spires! The castellations! The geometry! The lacy top! The stonework above the door!
The geometry is interesting because the tower starts as a squarish-type shape at ground level, and then higher up there is an arrangement of planes which slice off the corners, turning it into an octagon at the top. At the higher part of the tower, the stonework is open so the sky is visible between the fine arches and spires.
Then there are the clocks. There are two clocks on the tower, both showing the correct time. And there is another clock, also showing the correct time, suspended on a substantial wooden bracket below a little covered stage. Inside the stage are two muscular wooden figures, and two bells. The figures strike the bells every quarter hour. The little stage is described as an “aedicule” in Pevsner, who tells me that the clock was made in 1671.
The clock and the small covered stage (aedicule”), with wooded figures.
At ground level there is a rather austere monument: the bust of a man, on a plain triangular plinth, labelled simply “Northcliffe MDCCCLXV MCMXXII”. And behind that, above a door, a dusty statue, evidently very old, of Queen Elizabeth the First.
Northcliffe memorial. (Lord Northcliffe 1865-1922)Elizabeth statue (Queen Elizabeth I 1533-1603)
To the left of the church door there is a font set in to the fence. Round the edge, barely legible, it says “The gift of Sir James Duke Bart MP Ald of this ward”.
Next to the church, on its left, is a beautiful building, which is mysteriously empty and boarded up. This is 187 Fleet Street. It also has a clock, but this one did not show the correct time.
Another mystery: St Dunstan-in-the-West burial ground is some distance away to the north, on Breams Buildings, see map above.
St Dunstan-in-the-West Burial Ground, entrance on Breams BuildingsSt Dunstan-in-the-West Burial Ground
“IanVisits” has an article on the Burial Ground published in 2020. When he visited it was clearly in a better condition than it is now. On my visit, December 2023, the burial ground was litter-strewn and neglected, overshadowed by a building site to the East, and defiled by plastic advertising hoardings flapping on its north fence.
The current St Dunstan-in-the-West church was constructed in 1830-1832 to the designs of John Shaw senior, and completed by his son, also John Shaw. This building replaced a much older one. The church website says:
“It is not known exactly when the original church was built, but it was between 988 and 1070 AD. It is not impossible that St Dunstan himself, or priests who knew him well, decreed that a church was needed here.”
It is an active Anglican church, open during the week, with services on Sundays, according to the notice on the door. The building also hosts the Romanian Orthodox Church.
Northcliffe, it turns out, was quite a character. He was a press baron, founder of the Daily Mail, and promoter of popular journalism. He launched the Daily Mail in 1876. At a time when newspapers were mostly intended to be serious reading, Northcliffe realised the potential of offering “entertainment” and “diversion”:
Hamilton Fyfe, a trusted contributor [to the Daily Mail], recalled that ‘the Chief’ wanted the Daily Mail to ‘touch life at every point … He saw that very few people wanted politics, while a very large number wanted to be entertained, diverted, relieved a little while from the pressure or tedium of their everyday affairs.’
Northcliffe gradually built up his empire, acquiring the The Times and other newspapers. By 1914 he controlled 40% of the morning newspaper circulation, 45% of the evening and 15% of the Sunday circulation in Britain (Wikipedia). A fascinating article by Jessica Kelly of Cardiff University says that, due to Northcliffe’s influence, “politicians of the age sought his approval and support during this most uncertain and unpredictable of times”. Northcliffe publications advocated war against Germany. Once war was declared, they were a “solidifier of British public opinion behind a total war”. The author of this article makes a striking comparison between Rupert Murdoch today, and Northcliffe in the Edwardian era.
Lutyens designed the obelisk for the Northcliffe Memorial in St Dunstan-in-the-West, and the bust is by Kathleen Scott. (Pevsner)
I sketched the church standing on the other side of Fleet Street, near the office of C Hoare and Co, bankers. The church was closed when I visited, but I shall certainly go back and have a look inside during its opening hours.
References
“The Buildings of England, London 1: The City of London, by Simon Bradley and Nikolaus Pevsner (1999 edition)” page 214
55 Holywell Lane, London EC2A 3PQ, sketched 17 November 2023 in Sketchbook 13
This apparently dilapidated building stands on the edge of a building site in Shoreditch. The flaking shopfront announces “The Mission”. It looks dusty and closed up.
This is 55 Holywell Lane. The Victorian decorations on the front of the building say “G.T. 1893”.
Despite appearances, the building is in active use. It is part of “Village Underground” – “part creative community, part arts venue”. “home to cutting edge culture, clubbing and live music” founded in 2006. In the centre right of the drawing you can see the underground train carriages, hoisted on top of the venue. Their website says
“It’s a strange little haven of calm in the carriages, above the chaos of Shoreditch, enclosed by skyscrapers on each side, where we grow fruit and veg in our little rooftop garden, get excited about new bands and parties, plot and plan how to improve the venue, decide which shows to book, and try to get more people to come to our shows. “
This is an area of London undergoing transition. In the background of my drawing you can see the huge residential and office towers next to Liverpool Street Station: “The Stage” and “Principal Place”. I sketched the picture standing under the elevated overground railway line, next to a building site. On the white wall shown to the right of my drawing, people were making a large mural, an advertisement for a whisky brand. The number 135 double-decker buses came past at what seemed like extraordinary frequency.
Cars and buses queued in this small street waiting to cross Shoreditch High St. It was a narrow pavement, and not a great place to sketch. But two people came and looked at the drawing: it’s a great skyline, they observed, looking at the view. And it is.
Here is the view of the site from Great Eastern Street early in the morning. The underground train carriages are visible top left.
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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.
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.’
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 locationSketchbook 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.
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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 StreetThe 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.
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 “
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.
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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:
I went out to look for more gas lights in the City. There was rain, and the back alleys were wet. I couldn’t find any more gaslights. At the South East extreme…
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.
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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:
PencilPenThe viewColour
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 ContributorsSketch map
I’ve sketched in this area before. This post contains more information about the history of Liverpool Street:
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…
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 treePlane treeBeech tree in Wycliffe HallView from the bedroom windowTrees and the spiral staircase, Wycliffe HallMore 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.
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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.
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.
Jane Sketching 