Broadgate Circle is undergoing massive redevelopment. Here is the view looking North.
View of the North side of Broadgate Circus, 2 Finsbury Avenue under construction. Sketched, 30 December 2024 in sketchbook 15.
The concrete cores in the background are 2 Finsbury Avenue under construction. The previous building was demolished. On the left is 1-2 Broadgate, replacing previous buildings. The steel-clad building on the right is 5 Broadgate which replaced 4 and 6 Broadgate and sealed up the access road that led between them.
Building replacement: after 40 years, all change.
Broadgate Circle was constructed in 1985-7 on the site of the former Broad Street station. Here is what the 1980s buildings looked like:
5 Broadgate, on the right of my sketch, replaced the two buildings in the photo above. It is occupied by the bank UBS. The building has its own Wikipedia page:
The two lowest storeys contain a 200-seat auditorium, restaurants, a gym, and a dry cleaner. Above those are four trading floors which can fit 3,000 people each, as well as seven storeys of offices above. The superstructure is divided into a grid of 13.5-by-12-metre (44 by 39 ft) sections, arranged around the trading floors. Three of the building’s four utility cores are placed along the site perimeter to increase the amount of space on each trading floor.
The new 2 Finsbury Avenue “consists of a 12-storey podium with a 21-storey West Tower and 36-storey East Tower.”1 It is due to be completed in 20272 and will look like this:
The new 2 Finsbury Avenue, from the website of the architects 3XN. For scale: 5 Broadgate Circle is on the right of this picture, with the >< signs on the side.
Broadgate Circle is owned as a joint venture between British Land and GIC3. It is adjacent to Liverpool Street Station on the East side of the City of London.
Sketch map showing the location of Broadgate Circle, and my viewing line for the sketch
Here are photos while I was sketching:
Here are links to more views of the 1980s buildings:
British Land is a UK property developer and GIC is “a leading global investment firm established in 1981 to secure Singapore’s financial future”. GIC is “the manager of Singapore’s foreign reserves” Quotes are from press release below. ↩︎
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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Bermondsey is an area of London just to the south of London Bridge. I had tea at the bookshop and café called “Morocco Bound”. From a table outside Morocco Bound, I sketched the building opposite.
2 Morocco Street, sketched from “Morocco Bound”, 18th October 2024, 2pm in Sketchbook 15
As you see, on the ground floor there is a motor repair shop, “R.W. Auto’s”.
RW Autos is Southwark’s top garage offering a range of car services including MOT’s, repairs and servicing. Our Southwark garage has been established since 1969 and serves a plethora of private and corporate clients. Our team provide you with a friendly, reliable, personal, efficient, and affordable service.
The names of the streets round here indicate the historic industry of the area: tanning and leather making: Leathermarket Street, Tanner Street, Morocco Street.
A 1967 Webster’s dictionary, morocco bound. Source: for sale on James Cummins bookseller website (30 Oct 2024)
I was sketching on Morocco Street. Morocco is a type of soft leather. It is used for gloves and wallets, for example. It is also used for book bindings, hence the name of the café: ‘Morocco Bound”. According to the “Medieval and Early Modern Orients (MEMOs)” scholarly site1, Morocco leather was originally “a kind of extremely fine, soft, hard-wearing, and richly dyed sumac-tanned goatskin, originating in the Sokoto region of northern Nigeria, transported across the Sahara and exported to Europe by Maghrebi, particularly Moroccan, merchants.”. This was in the 16th and 17th centuries.
This luxury product was greatly imitated over the following years, so that “by the turn of the nineteenth century, nearly all obvious distinctions between imported and locally produced morocco leather had been erased, and to many modern curators, ‘morocco’ refers either to the distinctive grain, or simply to goat leather bindings, whatever their origin.”
Books are still bound in “morocco leather” today.
The phrase “Morocco bound” occurs in a song from the 1942 film “Road to Morocco” with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. Here is an extract:
We may run into villains but we're not afraid to roam Because we read the story and we end up safe at home Certainly do get around Like Webster's Dictionary we're Morocco bound
We certainly do get around Like a complete set of Shakespeare that you get In the corner drugstore for a dollar ninety-eight We're Morocco bound
Or, like a volume of Omar Khayyam that you buy in the Department store at Christmas time for your cousin Julia We're Morocco bound....
It was only when I started looking at the building carefully that I noticed the horses’ heads. It turns out these are a bit of a mystery.
The mystery of the Horses’ Heads
I found this 1976 photo in the London Picture Archives, reproduced here with permission:
You see Number 2 on the right of the photo, looking very much as it does today. Except that there are no horses’ heads. When did they appear?
Various websites2 suggest that Number 2 Morocco Street was “once a smithy”. If this was a smithy with horses’ heads in (say) the early twentieth century, then someone removed them before the photo was taken in 1976, and has put them back some time afterwards. Or the building became a smithy after 1976, in which case it must have been one of the very few left in London at that time. Or the horses’ heads are a recent decorative addition and not related to the original purpose of the building atall. It’s a mystery. Next time I am in the area I will go and enquire at R.W. Auto’s.
Photos of work in progress on the drawing, and the mysterious horses’ heads.
Medieval and Early Modern Orients (MEMOs) is an AHRC-funded decolonial project that seeks to further knowledge and understanding of the early interactions between England and the Islamic Worlds. AHRC is the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The quotations come from an article on their site entitled “Morocco Leather and Material Understandings of the Maghreb in Early Modern Britain” dated 14 November 2022 on this link: https://memorients.com/articles/morocco-leather-and-material-understandings-of-the-maghreb-in-early-modern-britain↩︎
Various websites suggest that this building was once a smithy. Here are the links: Layers of London:https://www.layersoflondon.org/map/records/morocco-street. “2a R.W.Autos with horses heads was a smithy/farrier” Bermondsey Boy:http://www.bermondseyboy.net/viewtopic.php?t=260. This website includes a photo from 2015 – with horses heads, and the commentary. “RW AUTO’S The two horse heads above the front of this garage workshop are the last clue that is was once a smithy – a blacksmiths.” This website also includes a 1968 photo which has no horses heads. ↩︎
Sketchbook 15 page spread
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This is the Limehouse Accumulator Tower, seen from Mill Place, London E14.
Limehouse Accumulator Tower, sketched 21 August 2024, in Sketchbook 15
In the 19th century, this building provided hydraulic power to machinery in the Limehouse docks. Hydraulic power is a way of transmitting energy from one place to another.
The problem at the time was that steam engines could generate motive force, but only where they were. You could build a big powerful steam engine, but you couldn’t put a steam engine next to every crane, capstan, or set of lock gates. You also didn’t want to fire up a steam engine every time someone wanted to use the lock gates. So you had to find a way of transmitting the power from the steam engine to the machinery which used it. And you had to find a way of storing the power so it was available on demand. Before the use of electricity was common, power was transmitted using pressurized water.
The steam engine located in this building was used to pump water into the adjacent accumulator tower, by lifting a heavy weight. The heavy weight was a neat fit on top of the water inside the tower and pushed the water down. Water does not compress. So the weight just sat there, applying pressure to the water. The pressurised water was distributed around the docks in thick cast-iron pipes. When the lock-keeper wanted to operate the lock gates they opened a tap and the force of the pressurized water opened the gates. Then they closed the taps. Far away, the weight moved down very slightly in the accumulator tower. Eventually the steam engine was used to pull the weight up to the top again.
That’s 19th century hydraulic power. Power is transmitted by pressurised water in cast-iron pipes: the original, functional, steam-punk.
I find it marvellous. I’ve drawn the much bigger London Hydraulic Power station here. The Limehouse building is smaller. It was built in 1869, one of several in the area at the time. It was restored in 1994/5, but sadly the weight and machinery are removed. There is a detailed history of the building on this link from the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society.
Sketching the Limehouse Accumulator Tower. The modern Docklands Light Railway lines run over the Victorian bridge to the left, the bridge to the right is disused.
Standing in Mill Place to make this sketch, I became aware of all the history that is embedded in walls. The one in front of me had been altered, rebuilt, and amended several times. A bit had been added on top. Plants lived there. A graffiti artist had made their mark on the crumbling stone.
I was standing under two bridges, both 19th century. Both survivors. One holds the modern Docklands Light Railway. The other had wonderful strong vaulting. But it held no railway. I walked around trying to find out where it went. The Google aerial view confirms what I suspected: it is a ghost railway. On the bridge there is verdant greenery where the railway used to be. It goes across a second sturdy bridge, over the A13, and then stops.
Vaulting on the bridge Verdant greenery, but no railway. (Accumulator tower in the background)A sturdy railway bridge across the A13 carries no railway.The railway bridges with no railway
Here are some maps which show the position of the Accumulator Tower and the absence of a railway (click to enlarge).
In this whole area the works of Victorian engineers make themselves felt. Each bridge is a triumph of the bricklayers’ skill: not only strikingly beautiful, with clean curves and neat detailing, but also enduring, powerful and functional 150 years later.
Sketchbook 15map (c) OpenStreetMap contributors: click to go to the map
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This structure is visible from the North side of the Regents Canal at Coal Drops yard. It was a “water point” for replenishing the boilers of steam engines. The top housed a water tank.
Waterpoint, seen from the Regents Canal towpath at Coal Drops. August 14th 2024, in sketch book 14
Here’s a map to show where it is. I’ve seen this structure often when walking along the canal, and it’s been on my “sketch-list” for a while, so I was glad that a co-incidence of weather and time gave me the opportunity to sketch it.
Waterpoint, circled.
I was sketching from the Regents Canal towpath right next to St Pancras Lock.
Sketching Waterpoint, looking south across St Pancras Lock.
It turns out that this structure is open to visitors from time to time. By an amazing co-incidence, one of the visiting days was the weekend after I did my sketch. The kind and informative guides there patiently answered the many questions I had, and allowed me to photograph their video and their display boards.
For me, the really fascinating thing about this structure is that it has moved. It was not always in this location. It used to be next to St Pancras Station. It was built around the same time as the station, 1870. In 2001 it was moved North, to its current location.
It was designed by team of Sir George Gilbert Scott, who designed the St Pancras Hotel. Since its purpose was to fill the tanks of steam trains, it was right next to the railway lines. You can see it here:
Photo of a video shown at the Waterpoint.
Here it is on an 1871 map: (click to enlarge)
my annotations to show the original position next to St Pancras, and the current positionOn the 1871 map it is labelled “Pumping House”1871 map on display at the Waterpoint (copyright National Library of Scotland)
I think I can spot it on this archive aerial photo from 1964. Here is the link to the picture:
The water point is just beyond the far right hand edge of the St Pancras train shed, in the centre left of the photo on the link above.
Here are some low resolution images to help you find it.
Detail from the aerial photo above. The gas holders shown in these photos have also moved.
Here are modern maps annotated to show the original position and the current position:
Google map. Waterpoint moved A to B.Waterpoint moved A to B. Gasholders moved X to Y. map (c) openstreetmap contributors
To move it, the original Water Point was cut horizontally into three sections. The lower section was left behind. A new lower section was built in the new location. The middle and upper sections went by road to the new location and were stacked on top of the newly built lower section. You can see, by changes in the bricks, the joins between the sections.
The new lower section is clearly visible.The line of new bricks at the top marks the join between the middle and upper sectionsView of the south side of the Waterpoint, annotated to show the sections
On the side of the Waterpoint visible from the canal, there is a clear “roof” pattern in the bricks, which I noticed when sketching it.
This marks the position of a shed that was fastened to the structure in its original position. See the pictures below.
Original position – note the shed on the left What was left when it was moved.The display boards show the project to move the Water Point. These are 2001 photos.
These photos and maps show how much the area has changed. See all the gas holders! They were constructed on the south side of the Regents Canal, because that’s where the gas works was. They originally held coal gas, which is carbon monoxide and hydrogen, manufactured from coal. Until 2010 they were a landmark for anyone who made this journey into Kings Cross regularly.
Here’s a frame from the 1963 film “Alfie” captured by @runningthenorthernheights, showing the gasholders in their original position.
Thanks to @runningthenorthernheights
The gasholders were decommissioned in 2000, but several of them couldn’t be destroyed because they were listed, so they just stood there for ten years. Then they were dismantled, stored, preserved and reconstructed in the years 2010-2015. They are now on the north side of the Regents Canal. Gas holder No. 8 was the first to be reconstructed, in 2015. It surrounds a small park. Gas holders 10, 11 and 12 followed, surrounding luxury apartments, part of the Kings Cross development. (https://www.kingscross.co.uk/gasholder-park)
Gasholders seen from the top of the Waterpoint, August 2024. I did the sketch from the far side of the canal.
Here are more photos from my visit to Waterpoint in August 2024.
Ball cock in the (now empty!) tank on the topView from the topView from the topThe “chimney” up close. The guide is explaining that it is purely decorative. It is solid: there’s no “chimney”.
I was very glad to have the opportunity to visit this quirky building. Recommended!
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“[built] to guide vessels to port, this was originally carried out by the harbour pilots via loudhailer from a platform built into the roof of the original 2-storey structure, or by a system of wicker balls suspended from a pole rising from the platform.” [1]
“Entrance to Aberdeen Harbour” by James Cassie (1819–1879) image copyright: Aberdeen Maritime Museum
“The control tower was added in 1966 and a radar system was introduced in 1974. The structure was further updated in 1986 at which time the Queen unveiled a plaque, situated to the right of the main entrance to the tower, commemorating ‘850 years of Harbour History’.” [1]
It was in use until the Marine Operations Centre opened in 2006 [4]. This is nearer the sea, just visible behind the lamp-post in my drawing. It handles about 25000 boat movements a year, which averages at 60 a day [2]. For comparison, Heathrow air traffic control centre handles abut 200000 aircraft movements a year or 500 a day [3]. The area managed by the Marine Control Centre extends 2.3 nautical miles around the headland to the South of the harbour [5]. So the Operations Centre handles not just boats going in and out, but boats moving around inside and outside the harbour as well.
MV Hrossey leaving the port of Aberdeen, photo copyright southspear media, used with permission [6] The Roundhouse, circled, is on the left, and the Marine Operations Centre is above the centre of the ship. This is the Northlink ferry, sailing to the Northern Isles.
I sketched this on a stunning hot day, sitting on a bench by the quay.
The Roundhouse. The modern Marine Operations Centre is the tall white building behind and to the left. In front of it, and lower down behind the cars, is the restaurant “The Silver Darling”.
Three years ago, on a very different day, I made a much quicker sketch:
A quick sketch on a stormy rainy day, sketching from the shelter of a doorway. June 25th 2021.
[5] Port of Aberdeen Vessel Traffic Services extent: “All shipping movements within the Aberdeen VTS area (within 2.3nm from Girdleness) are controlled by Aberdeen VTS. Participation with VTS is mandatory, for further details please see ALRS Vol.6.” https://www.portofaberdeen.co.uk/port-information/marine
[6] Thank you to Nick McCaffrey of Southspear media for permission to use his amazing photograph of MV Hrossey leaving the port of Aberdeen.
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Sometimes I go out and find a view for my sketch. Sometimes the view is determined simply by where I find myself. Here is one of those occasions.
I had breakfast in the seating area at the back of E5 Bakehouse. At 09:15 I was the only person out there. I looked at the view. The various roofs made interesting angles. The cyclist who delivers their bread arrived and loaded up his formidable cargo bike. Customers arrived, and came outdoors. The tables filled up, each new arrival nodding a greeting to those of us already there. People made room for each other. It was quiet, no background music, perfect. I went back to the counter and bought another Gilchester bun. Time to do a sketch.
Sketching at E5 BakehouseThe view from my table
E5 Bakehouse is not in E5 but in E8, right next to London Fields Overground Station, on the line out of Liverpool Street. Their website says
“The name E5 is a nod to our former local postcode and our intention to remain rooted in our community.”
They produce wonderful bread and pastries. My fellow customers were enjoying substantial breakfasts of eggs and all sorts of greens, or a kind of piled up yogurt and fruit dish. My favourite is the Gilchester bun: the archetypal currant bun – “Made using Gilchester’s organic flour , these are so simple and so tasty you can eat them on their own, or toasted even just with butter is all you need!”
A colleague of mine once told me that the way he judged a hotel was to ask for a glass of orange juice. The orange juice told him all he needed to know, he asserted. Was it fresh pressed, or out of a bottle? Was it served in a glass or a paper cup? Did they provide a spoon to stir up the bits?
For me, a currant bun is the test of a bakery. Those at E5 set the standard for currant buns the world over. The currants are numerous, the bread is soft and all the sweetness is from the currants. They are just superb. So that’s why I needed another one.
Here’s the finished picture. I added the collage at my desk at home.
Breakfast at E5 Bakehouse, watercolour and collage, 10″ x 7″ in sketchbook 14.Page spread: sketchbook 14
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Here is a view of the City Road 400kV Substation, sketched from the other side of City Basin.
City Road 400kV Substation from “Angel Waterside” City Basin, 19th May 2024 in sketchbook 14
This is a monumentally large building, a last remaining representative of heavy industry, in an area now mainly residential. All around are the new tower blocks containing luxury apartments, made of shapes and designs aiming for visual appeal. Chronicle Tower and Canaletto Tower are just off the picture to the right. The sub-station is robustly functional. I enjoyed its forthright no-nonsense appearance.
It’s built like a fortress, as well it should be. It is part of the UK power distribution system, connecting us in London to, amongst other power sources, the off-shore windfarms in the North Sea, an interconnector off across to Europe, and power stations on the Isle of Grain.
These diagrams come from a National Grid document on this link. The document is “Electricity Ten Year Statement 2012, Appendix A1”. It’s over 12 years old so there may be different connections now.
Despite the uncompromising appearance of the substation, the edge of its higher roof was softened with a subtle fringe of grass. I don’t know if this was a deliberate attempt at a “green roof” or if the grass planted itself there of its own volition.
I made this sketch sitting by the water observed by geese. It took me a little while to establish that the tree in the picture was on a raft, and therefore it moved. One does not expect trees to shift around from place to place. I would put it in the sketch, and look up again, and find I had mysteriously got it wrong, again. The geese, obviously, always knew it was a raft, and cackled.
The colours here are:
Phthalo Turquoise Blue for the sky (with some Ultramarine Blue)
Fired Gold Ochre for the bricks
Mars Yellow, with Fired Gold Ochre, for the paler brickwork
Ultramarine Blue for the cylindrical construction on the roof (middle left)
Serpentine Genuine for the tree
All greys and blacks are combinations of the above, plus Burnt Umber.
Colours are all Daniel Smith. The paper is Arches Aquarelle 300gsm in a sketchbook by Wyvern Bindery.
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On my way up to the West of Scotland I had a day in Glasgow. The overnight train had arrived at 07:30 and the bus to Oban didn’t leave until 18:05. I emerged from Glasgow Central into the mist and fine rain, and walked up the hill to find the “Buchanan Bus Station”. My idea was to stash my bag in the Left Luggage facility and then spend my time exploring Glasgow.
Glasgow at 07:30 on a wet morning in March is not so very enticing. I had the lowest possible expectations as I entered the bus station. Although huge, the bus station had been difficult to find, hidden as it is behind a monumental building called “Buchanan Galleries”. This is neither a “gallery” of the art sort, nor a shopping centre, as far as I could work out. It is a multi-story car-park. Every shop I had passed on the way up had been closed, possibly permanently, or so it seemed to me. There was a wind, I was getting wet, and I was hungry. Despite the confident announcements on its website, I was starting to think that the Left Luggage at Buchanan Bus Station would be closed.
But, contrary to all expectations, the Left Luggage Office was lit up, the door open, and everything looked new and clean inside. Even better, a cheerful man in a beanie hat soon appeared behind the desk, took charge of my pack, and efficiently operated the locker system. I exchanged a £5 note for a receipt with a code, put the receipt deep within my pockets, and set off into the grey morning feeling a lot more cheerful.
This came to typify my experience of Glasgow: a grey and wet city enlivened by cheerful welcoming people.
My wanderings around Glasgow. Positions of monuments and cafés are approximate. Map (c) Open Street Map Contributors.
Walking out of the bus station, and wandering at random through the grid of streets, I spotted the “Café Wander” in a basement. This is at 110 West George St and was a great find: welcoming people, a big mug of tea, food, and a charging point for my phone. No rush, I could think and sketch, and feel as though I’d arrived. I decided to head for the river. A river tells you about a city.
The amazing thing about Glasgow is that there are these magnificent buildings, and a lot of them are apparently empty. Or at least they are empty from the 2nd floor up. At street level there is a band of multi-coloured shopfronts, some shuttered. Higher up the Victorian optimism and wealth proclaims itself in ornamented facades, fancy windows, sculptures, and carved names of proud institutions: “St Vincents Chambers”, “Bank of Scotland”. But these higher floors are deserted. The windows are dusty, the facades chipped, the statues dark with dust. But still.
The river told me nothing about Glasgow, except that Glasgow seems to ignore its river. There is a main road, a magnificently restored catholic church, and a succession of buildings which in London would be converted to luxury flats but which in Glasgow remain as buildings awaiting their future. By the time I reached the park, I was really cold. Hacking my way against what was now a biting wind, I encountered a small round woman with a small round dog, coming the other way. She caught my eye and laughed, holding firmly on to the dog’s lead as though it anchored her to the ground. “Bitter!” she announced, still laughing. I agreed that it was.
I wanted to ask her some important questions, such as whether the “People’s Palace” had a café, and what was that brightly coloured building in the misty distance? But conversation was going to be impossible in that wind, so she and I passed each other in amicable silence, allies against the elements.
The brightly coloured building was called “Templeton Buildings”. It had no café, and no information. There was a bar, predictably closed. I circumnavigated it, and then set off for the “People’s Palace”. In the distance I’d seen someone come out, but they could have been a builder or a janitor.
It was now raining in earnest. All my papers, tickets and art equipment were in dry-bags inside my backpack, which had been a good precaution. I’ve been in Scotland before. The People’s Palace appeared out of the mist, a huge Victorian edifice, looking formidable and very closed. It was not closed. There was a board outside. A café! I pushed open the door, ready to be rebuffed at any moment, but no, inside was warmth and light, a museum of some sort, public toilets, and a café.
The “People’s Palace” Glasgow Green.
I more or less fell into the café. The friendly person at the counter gave me a guided tour of the home-made cakes, evidently from personal experience. Since he looked like someone who knew his cakes, I accepted his recommendation for the coconut sponge and took a window seat by an old fashioned radiator that was pumping out heat. From there, I watched through the window at coach tours who arrived to look at a fountain in the rain. This is the Doulton Fountain, gifted to Glasgow in 1888 by the Doulton Pottery in Lambeth, London. It would look very nice in the sun: a good sketching subject.
The friendly cake-expert directed me to information panels which told me about Templeton Buildings. This is the former Templeton Carpet Factory, which ceased operation only in 1980.
photo of Templeton Buildings
Eventually, fortified by cake, I was off again in the rain which had abated slightly. I was determined to sketch at least one of the Glasgow buildings. I came to the end of a long road, there was the Mercat Building.
Mercat Building, 26-36 Gallowgate, Glasgow, G1 5AB: 1928-31 designed by Andrew Graham Henderson who lived and worked in Glasgow 1882 – 1963
This was a very quick sketch, on an A5 card, done from a doorway as the rain came down. I stopped before all the colours ran together and retreated into “Rose and Grant”, another welcoming café where the people were not atall put out by my washing my brushes in their water glass and spreading out my watercolour equipment on the table, making copious use of the supplied paper napkins for art purposes.
My tour of Glasgow included the Museum of Modern Art, which has a peaceful library in the basement, as well as small galleries where the pictures have commendably large-type curation. Not crowded. Easy to navigate. Friendly.
I ended up back at Buchanan Street Bus Station, successfully retrieved my pack and was early for my bus.
Glasgow is definitely a City to return to.
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Jane Sketching 