Rotherhithe Tunnel South Entrance, and St Olav’s Church, Rotherhithe, London SE 16 7JB, sketched 18th November 2025
The church is St Olav’s, the Norwegian Church in London. It was designed by John Love Seaton Dahl, and the foundation stone was laid in 1926 by Prince Olav, later King Olav V, of Norway.
The steel arch over the tunnel approach road is part of the equipment used to cut the tunnel, as on the North side.
Sketch detail showing the steel arch.
Below is a photo taken from the front courtyard of the church, looking back towards my sketching location. You can see the steel arch above the wall of the Church courtyard.
View of the arch above the Rotherhithe Tunnel Approach road, from the front courtyard of St Olave’s church
As you see, there were many trees. I was sketching from a traffic island, between major roads.
Map showing my sketching location (red dot and arrow)
Above me there were parakeets, the green ones. I think this is the furthest east I have heard parakeets. They seem to be migrating slowly across London, West to East, and North to South.
Sketching amongst greenery, Rotherhithe Tunnel South entrance
I enjoyed the weathervane on the church: a viking boat.
For completeness, here is a map showing the entire route of the Rotherhithe tunnel.
Background map (c) OpenStreetMap contributors
I reached the South entrance via the “Brunel Tunnel”, which is now used by the Windrush Line.
I’ve now sketched both entrances and two of the shafts. Here are the other posts. Click on the image to go to my article about it on this website.
North EntranceShaft 3Shaft 2
Here’s my sketchbook with this sketch:
Sketchbook 16 page spread
Sketchbook: Arches Aquarelle 300gsm, book made by Wyvern Bindery
Paints: Roman Szmal
Pen and ink: De Atramentis Document Ink, Black, in a Lamy Safari fountain pen with Extra-Fine nib.
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The Rotherhithe Tunnel carries road traffic in both directions between Limehouse on the north of the River Thames, and Rotherhithe on the south side. It was constructed between 1904 and 1908, for horses and carts. The designer was Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice.
The tunnel links Limehouse on the north of the river to Rotherhithe on the south. Built originally for horse-drawn carriages and pedestrians, the tunnel now carries far more traffic than it was designed for, which requires careful day to day management by TfL to ensure safety.
Here is the North Entrance of the Rotherhithe tunnel, near to Limehouse DLR Station in the east of London.
Rotherhithe Tunnel North Entrance, sketched 18 November 2025 in Sketchbook 16
The arch in the picture is made of steel. A notice on one of the columns explains that this arch is part of the equipment used to construct the tunnel.
You can see the steel structure in the photo below. The tunnel is narrow. As you see in my sketch, there are just two lanes. The tunnel is heavily polluted from exhaust fumes. Even so, as I sketched, some people cycled into the entrance. Cycling in the tunnel must be very unpleasant and scary. I feared for them.
Cyclist entering the Rotherhithe Tunnel, under the steel arch.
Because of the limited space in the tunnel, there are size restrictions on traffic, including a height restriction. To indicate the safe height, there are long vertical tubes over the approach road, as shown in the photos below. These photos were taken looking back from near the tunnel entrance, towards Limehouse DLR Station, which you can see in the background.
While I was sketching, I heard the banging sound as an overheight van struck the metal tubes. This happened three times during the 45 minutes I was there. Each time, the vehicle carried on past me into the tunnel.
On the road island where I stood to sketch, there are two red telephone boxes. Amazingly, one of them still had the phone inside.
Despite the bright company of the phone boxes, it wasn’t a great place to stand. I could smell the pollution from the tunnel and its approach roads and I didn’t think it was doing me any good. Also it was cold. So having made my pen sketch, I went off to cross the Thames in search of the south entrance.
This wonderfully turreted building adorns a street corner in Bloomsbury.
Flaxman Lodge, Flaxman Terrace, London WC1H 9AW sketched 31 Dec 2025 in Sketchbook 16
It is listed Grade II. According to the listing entry it was built in 1907-8 to designs of Joseph and Smitham, “for the Vestry of St Pancras”. St Pancras is a church on the nearby Euston Road.
Map showing the location of the Lodge and St Pancras Church
Pevsner1 takes a different view. He associates this lodge with the terrace behind, which has the same domed turrets. He says:
FLAXMAN TERRACE, early St Pancras Borough Housing, 1907-8 by Joseph & Smithem. 6 storeys, with much conspicuously pretty detail: rough cast top floor and Art Nouveau railings. Similar features on the engaging little caretaker’s lodge at the corner of Burton Street
Pevsner, London 4 NORTH
Pevsner’s “LONDON 4:NORTH” book, describing Flaxman Terrace on page 330.
You can see the redbrick terrace, mentioned by Pevsner, in the photo below, with its domed turret matching the turret on the lodge.
Corner of Flaxman Terrace and Burton Street
So, in Pevsner’s version, the designer Smithem has an “e” not and “a”, and this building is “an engaging little caretaker’s lodge”.
Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras Coat of Arms on Flaxman Terrace railings
The “e” is correct. The architectural practice of Joseph and Smithem was founded by Nathan Solomon Joseph (1834-1909) and Charles James Smithem (1856-1937)2. The practitioners later included sons and a nephew of the founders. The practice designed a number of buildings in London including social housing, schools and the Egerton Road synagogue in Stamford Hill.
Flaxman Terrace was originally built as social housing by the then Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras, whose coat of arms is in the cast iron railings of Flaxman Lodge.3
Now Flaxman Lodge appears to be a private house. Evidently at one time it was divided into flats. Planning permission to convert the flats into one “4 bed dwelling house” was granted by Camden Council in 2014, application reference 2014/1396/P
The property was last sold for £2,280,000 in 2017 (The Move Market)
I sketched this building standing at the corner of Flaxman Terrace and Woburn Walk. “Woburn” would imply a possible burn or stream. Sure enough, the marvellous “British History Online” site delivers a map showing a stream in this location:
‘The Skinners’ Company Estate’, in Survey of London: Volume 24, the Parish of St Pancras Part 4: King’s Cross Neighbourhood, ed. Walter H Godfrey, W McB. Marcham (London, 1952), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol24/pt4/pp83-93 [accessed 1 January 2026]
I was standing in roughly the position of the “pond” shown in the 1785 map on the left. At that time, I would have been surrounded by fields. By 1898, urbanisation had arrived, but not yet this Lodge. The routes of old byways and street boundaries are retained. Here’s a 1942 map4, by which time the Lodge has appeared. The street pattern of 100 years previously is still there.
OS Map Revised 1894 Published 1911 Reprinted 1942 – Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland’ under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence. Link: https://maps.nls.uk/
The former “Drill Hall” has become “The Place” contemporary dance centre, and many of the 19th century terraces have been replaced by larger buildings. But the street pattern is unchanged. Burton Street still follows the angle of a long-gone field fence.
Sketching “the Lodge” at the corner of Flaxman Terrace and Woburn Place.Sketchbook 16
London 4: North, Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, 2001 reprint, page 330 ↩︎
On the 2nd January I joined a group of other artists sketching on London’s South Bank. This was an event organised by Jackson’s Art Supplies of Dalston.
The first picture I attempted was of the National Theatre.
Sketching the National Theatre – 2nd January 2026
It was extremely cold and there was an unforgiving wind.
I managed to finish the pen-and-ink but at this point I abandoned the idea of putting the watercolour on the picture, and hurried into the National Theatre to thaw out. The staff there patiently inspected my bag of art equipment. In the café I found a group of other artists from the event, drinking coffee, testing the operation of their fingers and talking about art materials.
Coffee and company warmed me up. I decided to try simpler drawings using big crayons that I could wield in gloves. Here’s a flick through the sketchbook:
South Bank sketchbook flick-through
The black marks are made with a Derwent “inktense” stick. These sticks make charcoal-like marks, which you can then darken or spread out with water.
The National Theatre – inktense stick on Arches cold-pressed paper
Here’s my last picture of the day. I was determined to use the watercolours, and found a spot where the wind was attenuated by a concrete wall.
At 3pm we all congregated and shared our pictures. I was really impressed at how many of us had persisted, in the cold, right to the end of the event, and at the wonderful work everyone had done. I mean, doing anything at that temperature was an achievement, I thought. You can see a picture of the assembled participants in the Jackson’s newsletter on this link.
Later, at home in the warm, I added the watercolour to my initial sketch of the National Theatre.
National Theatre and 76 South Bank – 2nd January 2026 in sketchbook 16
It was an inspiring day out. Thank you to the Jackson’s team for the initiative and the organisation. And thanks to the wonderful National Theatre for the warm and welcoming spaces, the café, and the toilets…..!
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Rotherhithe Tunnel Shaft 2, sketched 4 November 2025 in Sketchbook 16 (c) JaneSketching
Here’s a map showing the river downstream of Tower Bridge, and the location of these structures. Click to enlarge.
Map showing the Rotherhithe tunnel, all 4 shafts, and the entrances. Click to enlarge. (c) OpenStreetMapcontributors
You can see one shaft from the other. Here’s a picture looking North across the Thames, just before I started the sketch. The light wasn’t great, but you can still see both shafts 2 and 3. See how wide the river is at this point! The distance between the two shafts is around 1500ft (500 metres).
Photo looking north across the Thames at Rotherhithe 4th November 2025 (c) JaneSketching
Here’s a photo from closer:
Photo looking north across the Thames at Rotherhithe 4th November 2025 (c) JaneSketching
Shaft 2 is hidden behind high orange fences as you see. On the inland side it is behind a residential building at 157 Rotherhithe Street.
The Rotherhithe tunnel has 4 shafts. Shafts 2 and 3 are the round shapes and resemble each other. Both are Grade II listed.
Shaft 3Shaft 2Sketches of Shafts 3 and 4 (c) JaneSketching
Shafts 1 and 4 have been modernised.
Shaft 1Shaft 4Shafts 1 and 4 (iPhone photos, (c) JaneSketching, November 2025)
My next expedition will be to sketch the entrances to the tunnel.
Sketchbook 16 spread
Watercolours by Daniel Smith : – Burnt Umber – Serpentine Genuine – Phthalo Blue Turquoise – Transparent Pyrrol Orange – Mars Yellow – Fired Gold Ochre
Colours and brushes used for this picture. Colours by Daniel Smith. Brushes by Rosemary Brushes. Ceramic palette by Mary Ling. Brass Palette by Classic Paintboxes.
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Construction work for the Thames Tideway tunnel surrounds this small round building on the north side of the Thames, near Shadwell.
Rotherhithe Tunnel Shaft 3, King Edward VII Memorial Park, sketched 9th September 2025 in Sketchbook 16
This building is an air shaft and access point access for the Rotherhithe tunnel. The Rotherhithe Tunnel carries road traffic between Rotherhithe on the south of the river and Limehouse on the north. It was constructed between 1904 and 1908, for horses and carts. The designer was Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice.
The tunnel links Limehouse on the north of the river to Rotherhithe on the south. Built originally for horse-drawn carriages and pedestrians, the tunnel now carries far more traffic than it was designed for, which requires careful day to day management by TfL to ensure safety.
This circular building is one of four shafts giving access to the tunnel. It contains a spiral staircase, which was in use from when the tunnel was opened in 1908 until the 1970s2. This access is now closed to the public. The shaft building and the staircase are Grade II listed3.
The roof in my picture dates from a refurbishment in 20074. Originally there was a glass dome5.
Location of Rotherhithe Tunnel Shaft 3, map (c) OpenStreetMap contributors.
The fences in my drawing are the perimeter of a Thames Tideway tunnel construction site. The Thames Tideway Tunnel carries sewage from central London to Becton Sewage Treatment Works. It runs under the Thames. At various points there is a junction between this main sewer and a local sewerage system. The site at King Edward VII is one such junction.
The Thames Tideway tunnel runs longitudinally along the Thames, so it crosses the Rotherhithe tunnel, which goes across the Thames. But this is not a problem, as the Thames Tideway tunnel is 60m6 below the Thames and the Rotherhithe tunnel is just 23m down7. So they do not bump into each other.
Map showing the position of Shaft 3 at the North end of the Rotherhithe Tunnel. (c) OpenStreetMap Contributors.Sketchbook 16 spread
I’ve read that you can walk through the Rotherhithe Tunnel starting from one of the the tunnel entrances and passing under the shaft I’ve drawn. Those who have tried it8, even during the pandemic, do not recommend the experience. The tunnel is highly polluted from the vehicle fumes, and the pavement is narrow. It’s even pretty terrifying to drive through it in a car. Close the windows and the air vents, and stay alert while driving. If you’d like to walk a Thames tunnel, I recommend the Greenwich Foot Tunnel, or the Woolwich Foot tunnel, both of which I’ve walked. They are fun, eerie and have no traffic to pollute the air. You can read about my excursion to the Woolwich Foot Tunnel here.
Disambiguation: The Rotherhithe Tunnel I’m talking about in this post is not the same as an earlier tunnel built between 1825 and 1843 by Marc Brunel, and his son, Isambard. This Brunel tunnel was a little further upstream, and is now used as a railway tunnel only.
Roof replacement 2007 confirmed by King Edward VII park “Management Plan” 2008 page 15: “The park surrounds the tunnel vent and access shaft to the Rotherhithe Tunnel. The tunnel was opened in 1908, the vent was present before the park was constructed, and early images of the park show that it visually dominated the site. The tunnel vent remains an important feature, but is no longer so visually dominant due to the present day maturity of trees in the park. The Rotherhithe Tunnel was refurbished in 2007 and a replacement roof was installed as part of these works.” Link: https://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/Documents/Leisure-and-culture/Parks-and-open-spaces/king-edward-management-plan.pdf↩︎
Roof of the shaft: 1908 – glass dome, by 1946 – no roof (removed in the 1930s), from 2007 – current roof as in my drawing. Evidence: London Picture Archive has a picture of the shaft in 1921, where you can see the glass dome that covered the shaft. Record number 118817, Catalogue number SC_PHL_01_392_A360 See this link: https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/view-item?WINID=1762114518393&i=121045. They also have photographs from 1971 where it’s clear that the roof has been removed completely. See photo on this link, record number 237845, catalogue number SC_PHL_02_0666_71_35_217_30A: https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/view-item?i=239938 “A London Inheritance” post contains an aerial picture from 1946 showing that the roof had been removed by that date. See this link. This post says: ” The following photo dated 1946 from Britain from Above shows the park at lower left. Note the round access shaft to the Rotherhithe tunnel. In the photo the shaft has no roof. The original glass roof was removed in the 1930s to improve ventilation. The current roof was installed in 2007.” ↩︎
In a backstreet in Camden is a magnificent Art Deco building.
7 Herbrand Street WC1N 1EX, sketched 30 August 2025 in Sketchbook 16
This was built of re-inforced concrete in 1931, to the designs of architects Wallis, Gilbert and Partners. The style is called “Streamline Moderne” and includes fun details.
7 Herbrand Street, details
It was originally used as the headquarters of Daimler Hire Cars. It includes a spiral ramp, off to the right of my picture. This was where the cars entered and drove up to the garage.
General view of 7 Herbrand Street showing the former garage entrance (centre right). The spiral ramp was in the curved part of the building to the right.
As I was sketching, a passer-by approached me to tell me the history of the building. She worked for Daimler Hire, in the offices on the upper floors. Her husband was a driver, she told me. Later the building was used as the headquarters of the London Taxi Company, and by Hertz car rentals. The basement was occupied by Frames Rickard Coaches.
The building was listed Grade II in 1982, number 1378855. The listing calls it “Frames Coach Station and London Borough of Camden Car Park”. It is now occupied by a fintech company called “Thought Machine” who provide banking software. The spiral ramp has been removed.
This building with its curves was tricky to draw and took me a long time. The person who had approached me to describe the history returned back up the street. She held out a hand containing fresh hazel nuts she had collected from the pavement. “I don’t think Camden Council realise they have planted hazelnut trees” she said.
Once the pen drawing was finished, I ate a sandwich from nearby Fortitude Bakery, and walked home to finish the drawing at my desk.
Sketchbook 16
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This imposing building presides over an entire block, in the back-streets of Camden. I’ve admired its austerity and unadorned walls, amongst the much more elaborate buildings around. This is an electricity substation, very functional. I’d noticed it while sketching The Coach, a nearby pub.
Back Hill substation, EC1R 5ET, sketched 27 August 2025 in Sketchbook 16
There were many more pipes and connectors than I could fit into the drawing. They all looked important. This is a serious building. The sign on the wall says “Danger of Death”. But the pipework has a certain lighthearted steampunk appeal. The arrangement has lamps, ladders and valves in odd places, and inexplicable vents, as though it might huff and exude puffs of steam. But when I saw it, the whole structure was silent and still.
“silent and still”
The building is from the 1950s.
This complex dates mostly from 1956–7, when the London Electricity Board extended an earlier yard established in the late 1920s by its predecessor, the London County Council’s County of London Electric Supply Co. The 1950s buildings, designed by the LEB’s Architect’s Section, are of reinforced-concrete and steel frame construction with elevations of buff-coloured brick and glass block. They match the original building in the southeastern corner of the site ….
‘West of Farringdon Road’, in Survey of London: Volume 47, Northern Clerkenwell and Pentonville, ed. Philip Temple (London, 2008), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol47/pp22-51 [accessed 11 September 2025].
The planning notice on the gate: click to enlarge
It is very much in active use and currently being enhanced. Planning notices fastened to the main gates informed me that: “The customer at 21 Moorefield’s [sic], London EC2… requested a 10MVA supply from the City of London 33kV network providing enhanced level of security of supply.” They don’t want any fluctuation in the power supply, then, and no power cuts.
At the moment: “Back Hill 33KV substation does not currently have adequate capacity headroom to fully meet the customer’s requirements…” and “The substation capacity is currently limited by the transformers, incoming 132kV circuits and 132KV switchgear..”
So they have to replace the transformers, cabling and switchgear, to “allow the 21 Moorefield’s customer connection,” the notice says.
21 Moorfields is the building above Moorgate Elizabeth line station, just to the East of the Barbican.
21 Moorfields, from the Barbican Highwalk under Willoughby House.
“Electrical Contracting News” provides a more general description:
Almost 10,000 customers from Farringdon, Clerkenwell and key buildings in City of London are to benefit from a multi-million pound investment to upgrade the electricity network.
Work is currently underway to install the first of three new transformers – a device which steps down the power voltage so electricity can be safely delivered to local properties. The transformer, along with new switchgear equipment, will be installed at UK Power Networks’ substation to meet greater energy demand in the area. The £24 million project started in October 2021 and is due to finish in early 2026. As part of the scheme, the firm has consulted local councils and other interested parties to ensure that people experience as little disruption as possible while the work takes place. Euan MacRae, Project Manager at UK Power Networks, says: “This substation upgrade is part of our ongoing investment in the network to maintain safe and reliable power supplies and future-proof the network. The City of London is home to some of the capital’s most iconic buildings, so in collaboration with our alliance partner The Clancy Group this project is committed to carrying out a staged replacement of the major electricity assets at Back Hill Substation, some of which date back to 1956 and have been well maintained over the years. “We are excited to be installing innovative equipment which will allow the substation to provide double the previous level of power and will improve the resilience of power supplies across the network in London.”
I was pleased with my sketch of the substation, and I enjoyed trying to follow the lines of the pipes.
I find it fascinating to realise that there is enormous work going on to keep the electricity flowing, with very little fanfare. There are these silent buildings sitting amongst the offices and flats, doing their job.
Here is a sketch map to show where the substation is:
The location of Back Hill Substation.Back Hill substation, page spread, Sketchbook 16
I’ve sketched the nearby pubs, the Gunmaker’s Arms here, and The Coach here.
My expedition started at London Bridge pier, with a trip down the Thames on the riverboat. This seemed the simplest way to get to the docks. It takes about 50 minutes to go from London Bridge to Woolwich.
The route of the riverboat from London Bridge to Woolwich.
Everyone gets out at Greenwich, but it’s well worth going a bit further. The boat is empty, the Thames is huge, and the sky opens out.
The City of London seen in the distance, from the Woolwich Royal Arsenal Pier
The river boat pier at Woolwich is on the South side of the river. I was keen to explore the North side, so I walked a little way to find the entrance to the foot tunnel. There is also a ferry, but I wanted to experience the foot tunnel.
The South entrance to the foot tunnel is hard to find. It’s crammed into a dark space behind the leisure centre. It looks somewhat dingy and derelict.
South entrance of the Woolwich Foot tunnel, hemmed in by 1970s buildings.
You have the option of the lift or the stairs. I followed the arrow to the stairs. The stairs are round the back. You have to find your way in, sidling between the wall of the leisure centre and the columned entrance to the tunnel. I can’t help feeling that the constructors of the tunnel would be appalled that their ornate entrance had been obstructed in this way.
Entrance to the stairs, under the canopy. Leisure Centre is the blue part on the left.
By this time I was rather doubting the wisdom of this undertaking, as the old building seemed so abandoned, and the entrance was so dark. However, the stairs were brightly lit, and it all seemed feasible. So down I went.
The tunnel itself is marvellous: all bright and clean, with amazing acoustics. I could hear the distant voices of people ahead of me.
Inside the Woolwich Foot Tunnel
On the North side there is a different world. The North entrance, unlike its Southern counterpart, stands proud and isolated on an expanse of concrete. I sat down and sketched it.
The building stands on a traffic island which is a junction of many routes. The A117 takes heavy traffic onto the pier, to load onto the Woolwich Ferry. There’s a bus, the Superloop SL2 ,which goes to Walthamstow. People walk from the bus to the foot tunnel.
North entrance to the foot tunnel. The Superloop bus from Walthamstow is in the background.
The signpost on the left of my drawing indicates the long distance footpath “The Capital Ring”. I followed this route along the Thames a little way. The path is cut off after the Galleons Point Housing development. Signs say that the lock gates are being maintained. So the route returns to the main road and passes over the spectacular bridges across the docks.
The bridges offer a view directly down the runway of London City Airport. When I walked past, some boys were enthusiastically photographing the aircraft on their mobile phones.
Plane spotters on the bridge over the Royal Albert Dock. City of London in the distance.
The other direction from the airport, looking toward the Thames, is a scene which seems to define what we mean by “brown field site”.
A brown field site: Albert Island, North Woolwich. This photo was taken from the same spot as the one above, but looking the other way.
In the distance on the left, you see the housing developments round Gallions Reach. The quantity of space round here is astounding. And the docks are enormous.
Royal Albert Dock from the Steve Redgrave Bridge. The dock is about a mile long. The University of East London is on the right, City Airport on the left, City of London towers in the distance.
I walked on over these immense bridges over the docks. An oncoming bus tooted cheerfully. I looked up to see the driver smiling a friendly greeting. Perhaps I looked a little lonely and cold. The bus rushed on. I felt warmer.
On the other side of the bridge I warmed up in the “Wild Bean Café” (recommended) and then made my way to Gallions Reach DLR station and thence to central London.
If in need of wide open spaces and a bit of distance from the problems of the City, then a trip downriver is definitely the thing.
Sketching the North entrance to the foot tunnelSignpost by the North EntranceThe river at North WoolwichLooking downstream, North WoolwichPumphouse in Gallions ReachSketchbook 15 spread
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Esher is an area of Greater London, half an hour’s train ride from Waterloo. It is a place of diverse architecture: magnificent Arts-and-Crafts villas, modernist mansions, and a row of “stockbroker Tudor” houses.
Stockbroker Tudor houses, Esher.
On the other side of the railway tracks, in the low ground near the industrial estate and the waterworks, there is a council estate. This is “Lower Green”. It was built towards the end of the 1940s. This was an era of visionary town planning and utopian ideals, eloquently described in the book “Municipal Dreams” by John Boughton, Chapter 3. On page 66 Boughton quotes the town planner Patrick Abercrombie who sought a plan for Plymouth
“which allows for a higher standard of living well within our grasp, with its call for space and beauty rather than for mere economy”
J. Paton Watson and P. Abercrombie “A Plan for Plymouth” 1943.
The new towns were built around this time, including Stevenage, Crawley, Hemel Hempstead, Harlow, Welwyn Garden City, and Hatfield. Lower Green has many characteristics of those new towns: two storey “cottage style” houses with a front garden and a back garden, arranged behind wide verges, with trees and plenty of green space. The houses were designed by the architect George Blair Imrie (1885–1952), for Esher Urban District Council.
Round symbol on the houses: E for Esher, “UDC” = Urban District Council. Esher is now under “Elmbridge Borough Council”. See the interesting texture of the bricks.
My watercolours show houses on Douglas Road, Lower Green. Here, the land was acquired by the council in 1949. It was a compulsory purchase under the 1936 Housing Act. The vendor was the farmer, Sydney Edward Parkes. I have this detailed information thanks to an owner and resident of one of the houses, who kindly showed me their title deeds.
Here is the basic design of the houses.
A house in Douglas Road, Lower Green, Esher, KT10. Watercolour and ink, Sketchbook 14
The geometry is perfect: the side edges of the upper windows are aligned with the centres of the lower windows. The upper edges of the lower windows, the door lintel and the passage are all in a neat line.
What you can’t see in my painting is that this house stands behind a wide verge and trees, which separate it from the road.
Painting location for the picture above.
There is a passage through the terrace of houses, on the right in my picture. This passage takes you through to “the back” where you can store your bicycle, and your dustbins.
Another feature of the estate is the arrangement of houses round a square.
Here is a painting of some of the houses round the corner of a square: numbers 69 to 77 (odd numbers) Douglas Road:
69-77 (odd numbers) Douglas Road, Esher. Watercolour and ink, in Sketchbook 14Painting of odd numbers 69-77 Douglas Road Esher, seen across the huge green public space.
There are three such squares, all large green spaces. It’s one of the “patterns” in this estate, to use the concept described by Christopher Alexander, in the 1977 book “A Pattern Language”.
“A Pattern Language” by Christopher Alexander and others (1977), page 304, Pattern number 60 “Accessible Green”
I didn’t see anyone using the green space. But this was a Tuesday afternoon, in term time, and it was raining. Perhaps they were enjoying looking out across it from their windows. If they were, they were probably wondering what the strange woman was doing, sitting there on a metal camping stool under the tree, staring at their house.
This estate was originally intended as rental accommodation. It was owned by Esher Urban District Council and residents paid rent to the council. Nowadays, some of these former council houses are in private freehold ownership, having been sold under the “right to buy” scheme. There are also a lot more cars. The estate was built at a time when most people did not not own cars. The houses do not have garages.
The architect, George Blair Imrie, designed many houses in the area. His wikipedia page lists the large houses he designed for the wealthy. His work on the council housing estate of Lower Green is also remarkable, and not mentioned. So I am glad of the opportunity to draw attention to it here.
I drew these pictures between rainstorms, finally completing them under a borrowed umbrella.
Rain on the watercoloursRain on the page: the Arches paper holds up well and doesn’t crinkleInteresting colour effects due to a fine rain showerSketchbook 14, page spreadSketchbook 14, page spread
Blair Imrie’s work, including his work on Lower Green, is mentioned the 100th newsletter of the The Esher Residents Association, January 2020. See pages 4 and 5:
Jane Sketching 