This building was the gatehouse to a stately home, “Chesterton”, now demolished. It is made of fragments of that building and others.
Lynch Lodge near Peterborough, Landmark Trust. June 14th 2025 in Sketchbook 16
The building dates from approximately 1807. It was acquired by The Landmark Trust in 1983. The Trust undertook restoration works completed 1983. The architect for this restoration was Philip Jebb and the builders were C Bowman and Sons.
Lynch Lodge is the first picture in my new Sketchbook, Sketchbook 16.
The Lodge is in the midst of countryside which looks as though it is a painting by John Constable.
I sketched some of the characteristic houses on the West side of Shetland.
Houses at Greenland Burraland, Shetland West side. July 2025Sketching by the side of the road. The houses I am sketching are in the centre distance.
The houses above in Greenland Burraland are working farms and family homes.
Some of the croft houses are abandoned, and starting to fall down. Here is a ruined croft house near the standing stone at Vesquoy, Shetland West side.
House by the standing stone, July 2025
I sketched it from the hill above.
Sketching the house by the standing stone.
I used heavily granulating colours to show the walls.
This is Daniel Smith Hematite Genuine: a mineral watercolour which breaks into gritty particles when you put it on the paper with lots of water.
Then I walked down to have a look.
Looking up towards the hill where I was sketchingPatchwork barnThe variety of colours in the walls
On the same day, here I am looking up at a string of dwellings and barns on the brow of another hill.
Burrastow Lodge, July 2025
At the beginning of July I did this sketch (below) of some buildings in Walls.
Walls, across the Voe, July 2025
I was sitting on an uncomfortable stone ledge next to the Regatta Clubhouse. I was wondering, for the umpteenth time, whether it is worth the effort to carry a seat around with me.
Sketching in Walls
Despite that blue sky, it was cold, and very windy. Note the gloves. I had just done some grocery shopping at the Walls Shop and here I was, resting, before the long walk back up the hill, up several hills.
One of the reasons I sketch is to imprint moments in my mind. This sketch brings back to me the sensation of the clear moving air. My eyes were watering from the cold and wind, so the view became unfocussed. My eyes were watering from the bright light also. I had only recently arrived from London and my eyes were still acclimatising to the brightness. I put on sunglasses. It was an effort to see, and an effort to continue, and the picture came out somewhat…..approximate. But I keep it as a reminder of that moment of arrival, that determination.
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I had been travelling a long time. Reaching Old Aberdeen I sat on a granite kerbstone and sketched The Old Town House. Behind me was a friendly bookshop, where I had bought a map.
The Old Town House, University of Aberdeen, in Shetland 2025 sketchbook, size A5.
Having sketched, I walked into the picture I had drawn, and towards the trees on the left of the Town House. There I discovered a building being taken over by plants.
There was a plaque on the building, with writing on. You can see it in the background of the photo above. I couldn’t read the plaque at this distance, and neither could my phone.
Some tourists came by, laden with backpacks and cameras. They paused, curious to see what I was drawing. Since their eyes were younger than mine, I asked if they could read the plaque. They couldn’t, and neither could their phones. My next idea was that they could try using the telephoto lens on one of those formidable-looking cameras. With good grace they shrugged off a hefty block of technology, and removed its canvas housing. It had a fine lens.
“Mitchell’s Hospital, endowed by David Mitchell 1801. Reconstructed 1924.”
So now we know.
Mitchell’s Hospital, The Chanonry, Old Aberdeen. Sketch in “Shetland 2025” sketchbook, A5
David Mitchell founded the hospital as an almshouse “from a regard for the inhabitants of the city of Old Aberdeen and its ancient college and a desire in these severe times to provide lodging, maintenance and clothing for a few aged relicks and maiden daughters of decayed gentlemen merchants or trade burgesses of the said city..” [Wikipedia entry quoting the deed of mortification of the Hospital]. It was used as such, housing elderly ladies, up to to around 2016 when the final elderly resident, Iona Mathieson-Ross, had to move out.
A later article says it has been sold, and that the new owners are refurbishing the building as small residential units to be let, possibly as short-term holiday lets. The planning application on Aberdeen Council’s website shows a building looking identical to the existing one, cleaned up and repaired.
From the planning application 241449/LBC Proposed elevations, North and East
It sounds like a dream come true for this neglected building:
“PROPOSED WORKS Roof: Allow for removal of all moss and vegetation Allow for replacement of missing slates in size, thickness and colour to match existing. Check ridge tiling and re-bed any loose tiles. Chimney stacks pointing to be checked and where missing to be repointed…
…Chimney cans to be reset…
Granite Masonry: Pointing to be checked and where missing to be repointed…
Windows: Existing sash & case windows to be checked & where wet rot is evident timber sections to be replaced with same profile in Redwood. Windows to be refurbished to ensure they are fully operational and fitted with draught stripping internally….
External Doors: Existing external doors to be replaced with external quality Redwood 4 panel doors with double glazed obscure glass in upper 2 panels fully weather stripped primed and painted…
The planning application was approved on the 3rd July 2025, a few days after I was standing there doing my sketch. Perhaps when I next visit Aberdeen the improvement work will be in progress. Maybe, if it becomes holiday lets, I can even stay there.
I’m glad it’s being refurbished, but I shall treasure the view of this graceful building gradually being assimilated into the plant world.
Here is a map showing my walk and Mitchell’s Hospital.
I had coffee in Kilau Coffee – recommended!Sketching in Seaton Park, before the rain. St Machar’s Cathedral.
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This is an interesting terrace, just to the East of Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens.
121 and 123 Tyers Street, SE11 5HS, sketched 17 April 2025 in Sketchbook 15
The terrace house on the left has a terracotta plaque let into the brickwork:
A HOUSE FOR NICARAGUA Built 1984-91 to celebrate the Nicaraguan Revolution Sold to support community projects in Nicaragua
The website “Radical Lambeth” has an article which tells more. The house was restored as a community endeavour, led by a visionary, Ron Tod (sometimes spelled Todd):
“He had some money from a house he had built out of an old airfield shed in Essex, and he thought some of the people he was living with might help with the work. About 200 people – men and women in their twenties and thirties did…”
“Almost all the materials for 121 Tyers Street came from skips, building sites or dumps. The floors are parquet, retrieved in one great haul from a skip….”
Even from the outside, the house is feels beautiful. The windows are all different, and there is intriguing detail, such as the terracotta frieze above the window shown in my picture. This is a house built to a loose design rather than a rigid plan. Much was created by the people there, as they went along, using materials to hand. Sketching it, I was reminded of the work of the 1970s radical architect Christopher Alexander, “A Pattern Language”.
The house in the centre of my picture is 123 Tyers Street. This is much plainer. But it also is intriguing. The lower windows are not directly below the upper windows, but shifted right.
I sketched sitting on the wall opposite.
Sketchbook spread, Sketchbook 15
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See this interesting building! It’s just a few hundred yards from Brick Lane in East London.
1 Wood Close E2, sketched around midday, 9th March 2025 in sketchbook 15
I’d walked past it a few days previously, when I had been taking a circuitous route through East London on the way back from Hackney Wick. It’s an unusual building for the neighbourhood, most of which is terraces or blocks of post-war flats. This building stood out, on its own, at a street corner. What is it doing there?
Sketch map showing the location of Wood Close: just to the east of Brick Lane.
I went back a few days later for a closer look. On the white band at the front of the building I could decipher some words: “ERECTED 1826 [something] FIELD AND THOMAS [something] CHURCH WARDENS”
London Picture Archive has a photo of this building from 1946. The words on the front were a little clearer in 1946, so I can read that Thomas’ second name was MARSDEN. The London Picture Archive caption says that “the building began as a watchman’s house in 1754. The watchman was to guard against body snatchers who provided corpses for dissection to local hospitals. ” So that’s what it was doing: it was guarding the graveyard.
The London Picture Archive caption goes on to say that “In 1826 the building was enlarged so that a fire engine could be housed there.” That’s the building we see now, labelled 1826. It doesn’t look big enough for a fire engine.
19462025
In the London Picture Archive photo from 1946, the street name affixed to the building says “Wood’s Close” which would indicate it was named after someone called Wood. Today the street name on the building is “Wood Close”
This link shows a 1872 map. Here’s an extract. Click the map to go to the National Library of Scotland map which is very detailed. The street is called “Wood Close” on this map. You can see the “Grave Yard (disused)”. The Watch House, circled in red below, is in the corner of the graveyard, which makes sense.
Area around Wood Close: 1872. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland CC-BY(NLS)
As you see in my sketch, there are now a prodigious number of bollards in front of the house. I counted ten of them, standing like an amused crowd next to the “7′-0” sign . While I was standing there sketching, I saw why. The idea is to restrict the width of St Matthew’s Row so that vehicles have to slow down or stop, and cars can’t sneak round the edges. I watched agog as huge limousines edged between the bollards.
A large car navigates the bollards. St Matthew’s Church is in the background. A van only just fits through.
This Watch House, and the nearby Parish Hall are owned by St Matthews Church:
The Church also own the Watch House on Wood Close, which is currently let out to private tenants, and the Parish Hall on Hereford Street, currently let out to State51.
A house stands by Jesus Lock on the River Cam. I have walked by it so many times, over decades, that it holds a magical place in my mind. In the dimness of a childhood memory, I am looking over the wall. I remember flowers in the window boxes, a garden. Then somehow it became ignored, scruffy, derelict, vandalised. Then nothing happened, and it just stood there. Each time I saw it, it was slightly more dilapidated. But it remained in my memory, a beautiful house, in a lovely location. Surely someone will do something with it?
And last time I visited Cambridge, I found that, miraculously, yes!, someone is renovating it.
Jesus Green Lock House being renovated. Sketched from Jesus Lock, 24 January 2025, in sketchbook 15
This picture from the website of Michelle Bullivant1 shows Jesus Green in the 1700s. The little house by the river, arrowed, looks to me to be in the same position as the current Lock House, and you can see a bridge or ford across the river Cam at this point. I recognise the houses on the bottom right, which look like the terrace of houses on Chesterton Road which is still there.
Image from Michelle Bullivant, Local Historian
This photo of an old postcard shows that, in 1879, the lock house was single story.
Jesus Lock in 1879 – showing the floods. Image from capturingcambridge.org licensed under creative commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
During the 19th century, it was rebuilt. This picture shows the two-storey lock-keeper’s house on the left:
Image from capturingcambridge.org licensed under creative commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
It was listed Grade II in 19722. In the 1990’s the final lock keeper moved away3 The house then became a house of multiple occupation (HMO), for students. These was an application in 2016 to turn it into a café, reference 16/0001/FUL. Its use was listed as “HMO” at that time. But this application was refused.
In 2021, the house was bought by its current owners, who have been bravely going ahead with a renovation to transform this listed building once again into a residential dwelling, with an aspiration also to host community events4
“Eventually it will be a beautiful place and a better place”
I sketched the house on a very cold day in January. There was a strong wind which not only threatened to throw my sketchbook into the Cam, but also made my eyes water so I couldn’t see properly. I finished the pen and ink, and decided that was enough. Then, by a happy chance, I encountered the current owner unlocking the fence gate. Hence I learned about the efforts of this mother and daughter team, who are determinedly navigating the difficulties of an old building, listed consents, and many other obstacles. But they make amazing progress! See their instagram account for more information.
Sketching the Jesus Green Lock Housesketching by Jesus lockdetail from the sketch
Fournier Street is a row of 18th century houses in Spitalfields, east London. Here is number 25.
25 Fournier Street, sketched 19th December 2024 in sketchbook 15
The weather was cold, and I was sheltering from the wind in a doorway opposite.
People rushed past on the pavement in front of me. It was nearing Christmas. I caught fragments of conversation. “Everyone’s after money” said a woman to her companion, “and it’s wrong!“.
I enjoyed spending time looking at this elegant house. The tops of the windows are curved. This is quite common in London. What is unusual here is that the wooden window frames are also curved, and the top panes of glass are curved to match. This must make replacing the glass quite a labour, I thought, and the curved sash window frames would need a skilled carpenter.
A woman approached, looking bothered. She caught sight of me in my doorway. I thought she wanted to open the door where I was standing, to enter the house behind me. So I was ready to express my apologies and move my stuff out of the way. But no, she wanted directions to Brick Lane, which is at the end of Fournier Street. “Just there,” I said, pointing. Brick Lane was almost visible, in a straight line from where we were standing.
She was flustered and didn’t seem quite to believe my simple direction. “It’s all changed round here!” she objected. I paused.
This street has hardly changed in 300 years. I’d just spent an hour looking at a house that was built in 1727. But I didn’t say that: a latent voice episode1.
She was an artist too, she told me. She was looking for a gallery. She hurried off, in the direction I’d indicated.
I was left looking at the house, and thinking.
latent voice episodes = “potential communications that may or may not in fact occur”, Harvard Business School paper: Working Knowledge, Q&A with Amy C. Edmondson, author: Sarah Jane Gilbert, March 20, 2006. “Latent voice episodes” is a useful concept, I think. It’s for those times when you might speak, but don’t. ↩︎
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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:
In the afternoon I sat down on the stone steps and sketched the houses that were in front of me.
Sainte-Croix houses, 8″ x 6″ postcard on Arches Aquarelle 300gsm paper. March 2024
I was struck by how the afternoon sun cast shadows on that glass screen, centre left, and illuminated the little greenhouse-type roof on the house in the centre. These are solid Swiss houses, with heavy tiled roofs and properly operational shutters. Some of the metalwork, such as the guttering and the surroundings of the chimney stacks, is in actual copper. Even the downpipes are copper.
One tree was a fir tree and was opaque. The other tree was twigs, and was transparent.
Although it was spring, this is at 1200m, and it was cold. The deciduous trees are still bare. The hill is the background is Mont-de-Baulmes. Many of the trees up there are deciduous larch.
I painted this picture in watercolour-only. Usually I use pen. Here, I did a quick pencil sketch and then straight on with the colour. It was too cold to try to get any details or do any penmanship. The solid plainness of the houses seemed to demand flat colour washes. I deliberately left lines of white between the slabs of colour – the sun always catches edges.
Work in progress22 March 2024 16:30
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Jane Sketching 