Category: Pub / restaurant

Market Café, 2 Broadway Market, E8

Here is the Market Café, sketched from the “Cat and Mutton Bridge” on 19th January 2024.

Market Café, 2 Broadway Market, London E8. Sketched 19th January 2024, 15:30, in Sketchbook 14.

As you see, this building is the former pub, the “Sir Walter Scott”. A pub was on this site in 1836. The wording on the building says “rebuilt 1909”. It closed as a pub in 1999 according to “pubhistory.com”. The Market Café now operates from the ground floor.

The website of Broadway Market gives a history of this area. In the early 19th century, the canal was the major means of freight transport, until the coming of the railways in the 1840s.

In 1812 “The Regent Canal Act” was passed and the Regent’s Canal constructed. This final link was direct into the River Thames at Limehouse, completing the passageway of heavy freight to Birmingham Manchester and the entire industrial North. (It should be noted that this was at the time of horse-drawn stage coaches and ox-laden wagons).

The new Regents Canal became a central pivot for industry and supplies. Timber warehouses grew, Gas light and Coke companies were established and this once rural backwater had become a major hub of enterprise.

https://broadwaymarket.co.uk/history-part-1/

This “once rural backwater” evidently needed a pub. Sir Walter Scott was a Scottish historian, novelist, poet, and playwright. He died in 1832, which must have been around the time this pub was named and the area was growing in population and importance.

The National Library of Scotland provides a wonderful side-by-side map, so you can see how the area looked previously, alongside a modern map. Click the image below to go to their marvellous site. You can shift the images around and expand them: both maps change at once. It’s fascinating.

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=17.6&lat=51.53590&lon=-0.06196&layers=117746212&right=osm

I had a look at an 1870 OS map. The Public House “P.H.” existed here in 1870. The road currently called Broadway Market was called “Pritchards Road” then. You can see the rows of terraced houses along the canal, gone now, and the “Coal Wharf” and “Wood Wharf” which used to be on the south side of the canal.

Broadway Market is now a street of modern coffee shops and small enterprises, with a street market of stalls down the middle. The jeweller William Cheshire has a workshop at the south end of the street. Climpson Coffee are further up. There are bakers, grocers, greengrocers and an opticians. At the North end, Broadway Market gives onto London Fields, a lovely park, with a lido.

It’s a great area to explore.

The Jamaica Wine House, EC3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chair kindly lent by MacAngusWainright

The colours in the picture are:

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

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

Scenes from Switzerland – August 2023 sketchbook

Sketching is a way to fill those “waiting” times with creative activity.

..at the airport…
..waiting for lunch…
..before dinner…
..before the others arrived…
…waiting for the food….

I had an A5 sketchbook with cartridge paper. This cartridge paper behaved differently from the watercolour paper I am used to. It was more suited to quick sketches.

It was hot weather. Outdoors the paint dried quickly. Here’s the hotel from the other side of the road, drawn very quickly, about 20 minutes.

Hôtel de France, Sainte-Croix 18 August 2023

I went to the swimming pool. On the way back I stopped to sketch the sloping hill and a house in the trees.

Here’s a view of the bar at the hotel.

Here’s a flip-through of the sketchbook. 20 seconds of silent video. [This video and the gallery beneath may not show on email or phones so if there’s a problem please see the web version of this post]

Sketchbook flip-through. Sketchbook from the Vintage Paper Company.

I’ve sketched in Switzerland before. Here are some other other drawings I’ve done in the same location:

Swiss house on a hill

Here is 23 rue du Petit-Montreux, Sainte-Croix, Vaud. I sketched this house after breakfast. The sun was bright and I rushed out into the crisp morning. It took me…

read this post…

View from a Swiss Hotel

It was raining in Switzerland. Here is a sketch I did looking out of the window of the Hôtel de France, Sainte-Croix, Vaud. The building with the flags is…

read this post…

Sainte-Croix, February 2020

The weather in the Jura mountains is changing. This is climate change, the residents tell me. Once, the snow came reliably every year, bringing skiers. Now, the snow is…

read this post…

Sainte-Croix, Vaud

This is the church. Drawn and coloured on location, about 1 degree C. That’s snow in the foreground. Then later, it was colder. Hotel de France, drawn from the…

read this post…

Snow in Sainte-Croix

Snowfield behind the church. Painted with melted snow as I forgot to bring water. All done standing up as everything was wet and cold. Snow blew from the roof…

read this post…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mar i Terra, Gambia Street, SE1

Here is the bar and tapas restaurant “Mar i Terra”, cosily tucked away in a back street near Southwark Station.

“Mar i Terra” Gambia Street SE1, sketched from Scoresby Street. 7″ x 9″ in Sketchbook 12.

There are magnificent Victorian railway arches looping all around, and 21st century buildings in the background, but this building stands defiantly, self-contained and functional.

The restaurant is open Tuesday to Sunday for dinner. It also serves lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was sketching it on a Wednesday so I sought lunch elsewhere, and discovered the wonderful “Origin Coffee” in Scoresby Street.

Poached eggs on toast in Origin Coffee, while the first wash dries on the picture.
Map showing location of the sketch

According to their website “Mar i Terra” has been serving the people of the neighbourhood since the year 2000. Up until 1999 this building was “The Hop Pole” pub.

The Hop Pole in about 1972. Image from “https://www.closedpubs.co.uk/london/se1_southwark_hoppole.html”

According to the “Pub History” site, victuallers were recorded at this site in 1791. So it was a pub for nearly 200 years.

Here is work on progress on the drawing.

Pen
Painting on location
Paint drying in Origin coffee
Sketchbook 12

Colours:

  • Sky: Ultramarine Blue and Cobalt teal blue
  • Brickwork: Mars Yellow with some Fired Gold Ochre
  • Greys and blacks: Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber
  • Green paintwork: Serpentine Genuine moderated with Cobalt Teal Blue
  • Graffiti added with a red crayon

Here’s an image from the Pub History website. I can just read that the notice on the big window says “Luncheon Room”. So the Mar i Terra continues the tradition, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The railway bridge behind, on the right of the photo, is still there, too, as well as many of the features of the front of the pub. Amazingly, the door layout seems to have endured. Is that Mrs H Thomas standing behind the door on the left?

The Eagle, Farringdon Road, EC1

Here is “The Eagle” 159 Farringdon Road, London, EC1.

The Eagle, Farringdon Road, October 2022, 12″ x 9″ [sold]

I painted this as a commission. My client liked the pub and asked for a picture which showed the liveliness of the place. I sketched it from the other side of the Farringdon Road.

There was certainly a lot of activity in the pub. As you see in the picture, people arrived and occupied at the tables in the street, even though this was October, and quite chilly. The lamppost by the door was soon adorned with a collection of bikes.

Here are some details from the picture:

Here is work in progress:

Preliminary sketch
Pencil underdrawing
Pen on Arches Watercolour block
Pen (Safari Lamy, shown in my hand)
Pen complete

I completed the pen drawing on location and added the colour later:

Thank you to my client for this commission, and for allowing me to post the picture here.

I have also sketched The Eagle, 2 Shepherdess Walk. See this post:

The Eagle, 2 Shepherdess Walk
Click the above link to jump to my post about The Eagle Shepherdess Walk.

Old Kings Head, EC2

Here is the Old Kings Head, 28 Holywell Row, EC2A 4JB: ” a family-run retreat from the stresses of everyday life in the proximity of the almighty Silicon Roundabout” [oldkingshead.london]

The Old Kings Head, Shoreditch 26 November 2022 in Sketchbook 12

“Enjoy great beers, ales, spirits and, if you must, soft drinks in the friendliest, happiest, most traditional, greentiletastic and fantastically the least expensive pub in the area” continues their website.

I love “greentiletastic“. The green tiles are indeed fantastic: I have tried to show them in my drawing.

This pub is in a network of tiny streets running at all sorts of unexpected angles. As I sketched, I saw, more than once, an expensively dressed person trailing a carry-on size suitcase, picking their way over the broken paving stones and patched up tarmac, in unsuitable shoes. The person drifted on, towards Old Street, bearing a dreamy mystified expression, as though these piebald buildings did not quite correspond to the mental image they had of their destination, or, more likely, the street pattern did not correspond to the image on their mobile phone. They saw neither me, nor the pub, but seemed to exist in another reality.

This pub is old. According to “pubhistory.com” the earliest landlord was “James Taylor, victualler” in 1792. This is from insurance records in the Guildhall Library.

It sounds like a great pub.

I drew it standing outside the restaurant “Padella”, next to a narrow alley called “New North Place”. New North Place is the opposite of new, but it does go North. To my total astonishment, a huge lorry emerged from this tiny alley, and blocked my view. This is a common hazard sketching in London. It soon moved on though. I was impressed that the driver had ventured into the alley.

Sketchbook 12

The Griffin, 93 Leonard St, EC2

After I’d sketched The Old Blue Last, I left the thundering traffic behind and walked through back streets of Shoreditch. I encountered “The Griffin”. It seemed like a friendly place, with neat brickwork, and welcoming lights inside. I sat on a low wall, and sketched it, as electric taxis glided past. Or should that be “glid”?

The Griffin, Leonard Street EC2. Sketched on 21 September 2022 in Sketchbook 12.

The pub is built on a slight slope. Ravey Street slopes upwards towards Leonard Street.

Map showing where I sat and sketched “The Griffin”

It’s an area of sharp contrasts. Behind me was the “Nobu Hotel” radically modern. Blackall Street, however, looks unkept, like the seamy side of a garment. The people walking by were various. A group of young people speaking a Germanic language rushed past onto Leonard Street following a route on a mobile phone. Several men in florescent jackets walked towards me in a tight group, studiously conversing and referring to a clipboard which one of them carried. As they passed I realised they were speaking another language, perhaps of a Baltic region, with soft “shh” sounds. A young woman strode past in the opposite direction, frowning, speaking no language but with her mobile phone held at her ear. None of these people paid me any heed. Then a totally different person appeared, dancing a jagged line along the street, with hair in long strands, and a huge smile. He noticed me and marched up, asked how I was, commented on the day, admired my drawing, and offered me a fist to bump in greeting. This done, he completed a 36o degree turn on the spot, and walked loosely on up the street, offering his benign greetings to other bemused passers-by. This is London.

Blackall Street, seamy side on the left, Nobu Hotel on the right.
The radically modern Nobu Hotel.
Nobu Hotel on Willow Street
Looking North up Blackall Street, Nobu on the left, “The Griffin” centre distance.

The Griffin is in an area of contrasts.

The area containing The Griffin has recently been totally redeveloped. A new hotel was constructed on Great Eastern Street. These works took place in 2013-5. They included a renovation of the pub itself, and conversion of its first floor into flats. There is extraordinarily detailed research on the whole site done by “The Historic Environment Consultancy”. See this link.

The pub is Grade II listed, the buildings around were unstable, and archaeological investigations were called for. The Historic Environment Consultancy wrote a scholarly account of the state of The Griffin in 2013, in preparation for the redevelopment. They generously put this report online. You can read it on this link or download it here if that link is no longer valid:

report-2013-1141griffinDownload

The consultant carefully identified the phases of construction of the pub, by looking at details of its structure. For example they observe:

The timbers in the roof are machine-sawn where visible and thus they date the roof to post 1790 and likely to be post 1840.

The Historic Environment Consultancy, Colin Lacey 2013

They conclude that it was constructed in three phases, the first two between 1799 and 1872, and the later one after 1887. This later phase is dated because it included the installation of a Dumb Waiter which was only invented in 1887. It was built as a pub, and has always been a pub.

At the time of their inspection, the consultants noted that the building was on the “At Risk” register:

The building also appears on English Heritage’s Heritage at Risk Register. It is said to be in ‘poor’ condition because, according to the register, of a lack of maintenance.

The Historic Environment Consultancy, Colin Lacey 2013

This poor state is evident from the photos they include in their report, which show plants growing out of the roof, and crackling stone work.

When I sketched it, the pub was in an excellent state of repair, very neat looking, with beautiful patterned brickwork. Worth a visit.

View from Leonard Street (Sept 2022)
Meux Brewery brewed on the site of the Dominion Theatre, Tottenham Court Road until 1921, then moved to Nine Elms where brewing ceased in 1964 (https://pubheritage.camra.org.uk/pubs/2020)

I drew the pub in pen and ink on location and completed the colour at my desk.

Pencil drawing and tree seed
Pen drawing
Pen drawing and cigarette butts.

The colours are:

  • Ultramarine Blue, Lavender and Burnt Umber for the sky
  • Fired Gold Ochre and Mars Yellow for the brickwork
  • A mixture of all of the above plus Perylene Maroon for the tiled ground level
  • All blacks and greys are Ultramarine Blue with Burnt Umber

The drawing is done on Arches Aquarelle 300gsm cold-pressed paper, made into a sketchbook by the Wyvern Bindery. The pen I use is a Lamy Safari with a fine nib and De Atramentis Document Black waterproof ink, both from “The Writing Desk”.

The Old Blue Last, Shoreditch, EC2

Yesterday, I went to look for “The Old Blue Last”, a pub which featured in a book I was reading.

“The Old Blue Last stood at the top of Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch, a snub-nosed, imposing three-storey brick building curved like the bow of a boat…..”

‘Career of Evil’ by Robert Galbraith, Chapter 12.
The Old Blue Last, Great Eastern Street, London EC2. Sketched on Wednesday 21st September in sketchbook 12.

I sketched standing outside the estate agents Fraser and Co.

Map showing where I was standing, outside Fraser and Co, and my viewpoint. I later sketched “The Griffin” which is marked also.

This pub is now owned by “Vice Magazine” (“VICE is the definitive guide to enlightening information.”). Their website helpfully publishes a history of the pub:

“…in 1576 a venture capitalist named James Burbage built a venue called The Theatre where The Old Blue Last currently stands…..Eventually Burbage pulled down The Theatre and moved it south of the river, where it became The Globe….in 1700 a bar was built on the site of the old theater. It was called The Last, which, remarkably boringly, refers to a wooden block that a shoemaker uses to mold a shoe. The Last was owned by a brewer named Ralph Harwood, who went on to achieve a small level of fame when he was pronounced bankrupt one day by Gentleman’s Magazine…..In 1876, Truman’s brewery took over the pub. They pulled The Last down and rebuilt it as The Old Blue Last, which means “the old blue wooden pattern that is used to mold(sic) the shoe….Eventually Truman’s went down the toilet and Grand Metropolitan Hotels took over the OBL…[1970s, 1990s] —At that point, The Old Blue Last was a rough place full of rougher men and people who were afraid of being beaten up by them. It housed an illegal strip club and brothel, which was on the second floor…” [https://www.vice.com/en/article/ex575k/how-vice-bough-a-brothel-v10n12]

“Vice” bought The Old Blue Last in 2004 and turned it into a music venue.

“Anyway, it’s a great bar, all the gigs are fun, and it’s right by our office.” [https://www.vice.com/en/article/ex575k/how-vice-bough-a-brothel-v10n12]

“It’s not about great food, beer connoisseurship or child-friendliness (it’s very much 18+): it’s about atmosphere, which it has to spare, and dedication to live music…” [https://www.datathistle.com/place/54846-the-old-blue-last-london-ec2a/]

Great Eastern Street is a very busy thoroughfare, taking buses, lorries, delivery vehicles and cars between the Old Street Roundabout and places East. I noticed the crowd of street furniture outside the pub. See the lamp post, which, though modern, attempts to imitate some of the Victorian features of the pub. The CCTV camera next to it, however, is strictly utilitarian, on its unadorned pole. I wonder why they didn’t put the security camera on the lamp post. They are only about 3 feet apart.

I tired of the pounding noise of Great Eastern Street, despite the friendly location outside Fraser and Co. One of their employees, mobile phone clutched in his hand, paused and commented favourably on my drawing, as he re-entered the office. People passed by wrapt in intricate conversations about modules, funding agreements and childcare issues. After I finished the pen drawing, I retreated into the quiet back streets.

Pencil
Pen

I added the colour later, at my desk.

The colours are:

Ultramarine Blue and Lavender for the sky and street signs, Mars Yellow and Burnt Umber for the brickwork, with some Fired Gold Ochre. The black is made of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber. There’s some Cobalt Turquoise Light on the Colt Technologies building behind the pub. I used acrylic gold paint by Liquitex to pick out the gold on the pub, including the lettering.

The Globe Moorgate, and Crossrail buildings EC2

The Globe Moorgate is a magnificent Victorian pub, standing boldly on the corner of London Wall and Moorgate. As you see, it is in the midst of more recent developments. The huge office block you see in the centre left of my drawing is still under construction. It is above the new Crossrail station at Moorgate. Crossrail is now called “the Elizabeth Line”. In the background there are two further blocks going up. These are 22 Ropemaker, on Ropemaker Street.

The Globe Moorgate, EC2, sketched on 29 August 2022, at 5pm in Sketchbook 12

There are various curious things about The Globe. On the corner is the prominent number “199”. You’d think that was the street address, but no, the Globe is 83 Moorgate. I can’t discover where this “199” came from.

The corner of The Globe: “199” in huge lettering. But the Globe is number 83 Moorgate.

Here’s a 1904 map. The street layout was different then. Fore Street went all the way to Moorgate. But still it’s easy to identify the Globe. On this map it is numbers 11 and 13 Moorgate, certainly not number 199.

Here’s a map from the Historic England Listing entry for the Globe. This is a 2022 map. The Globe, ringed in red, is shown at number 83.

https://mapservices.historicengland.org.uk/printwebservicehle/StatutoryPrint.svc/390651/HLE_A4L_Grade|HLE_A3L_Grade.pdf
The Keats bar: the plaque is on the second storey

Another interesting thing about the Globe is that it recently absorbed an adjacent pub. There used to be a pub right next door called the John Keats. This was absorbed by The Globe in 2008, according to this Evening Standard article. The connection to John Keats is described on a plaque high up and difficult to read. It says:

IN A HOUSE ON THIS SITE
THE “SWAN & HOOP”
JOHN KEATS
POET
WAS BORN 1795

I sketched The Globe from across the junction of London Wall and Moorgate. As it was a Bank Holiday the junction was not as busy as normal. But it was still pretty busy. After a while I had had enough of the people passing in front of me, and the buses and the noise, and I packed up and finished the drawing at my desk. Here is work in progress and another map, showing the direction I was looking.

Here are all the buildings, labelled:

The office block above the Crossrail station is a stupendous feat of engineering, because essentially it is built across a great hole in the ground. From the Barbican Podium on the other side, I saw the great struts, spanning the gap. It is built like a bridge. I drew a picture in this blog post (May 2020):