Tag: Cambridge

Jesus Green Lock House, Cambridge

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

You can see the progress of their work on their instagram site @uglyduckling_reno

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 House
sketching by Jesus lock
detail from the sketch

References:

  1. Michelle Bullivant, Local Historian. The image is on this page: https://www.michellebullivant.com/cambridgeshirehistory/brief-history-of-jesus-green-cambridge#/ ↩︎
  2. Historic England listing number 1111846: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1111846?section=official-list-entry ↩︎
  3. The final lock-keeper moved out in the 1990s according to the Cambridge Edition May 14th 2023. https://cambsedition.co.uk/property/lock-house-and-key/ ↩︎
  4. The renovation reported in the Cambridge Evening News 15th July 2021: https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/jesus-green-lock-house-getting-21062688 ↩︎

Sketching in Cambridge

Here’s the view from a café in King Street, Cambridge.

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All Saints Church Jesus Lane.  Drawn in Jackson’s Watercolour Sketchbook.

This café used to be called “Clowns”. There were two Italian sisters downstairs. Now it is called “The Locker”, and the staff are different. Much to my relief, they have not messed it up. It is still a tranquil place. The coffee is excellent. There is no intrusive background music. People read books upstairs. I drew this picture looking out of the upstairs window. Behind me, on a low sofa, a man was reading two books alternately and monitoring his laptop screen. Both books were by Jorge Luis Borges.

At an adjacent table three women were making design decisions for the website of a charitable organisation.  This sub-page, that on the main menu, shall we include video? They discussed titles, and the placing of punctuation marks. I was concentrating on my drawing and only heard the odd word. Then one of the women described a conversation she’d had on a previous job, for a college. A fragment drifted over to me. She had quite a loud voice. “I told them it was “Porters’ Lodge”, and not “Porter’s” apostrophe “s”, because there was more than one porter.  But they told me I was American and didn’t know anything. “

Here is a drawing of a chimney on the houses on Mill Road, drawn from a café called “Tom’s Cakes”

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Chimney in Mill Road. Drawn in Jackson’s Watercolour Sketchbook.

On the bench by the window, a man was completing the cross word, or engaged in some other puzzle that required his total concentration. This made him a good subject for a quick sketch.

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Quick sketch in Vintage Paper Company Katazome Sketchbook, on vintage watercolour paper.

 

 

Three sketches in Cambridge

I drew the Round Church from the low wall outside St John’s College. It seems surprising to me that the road sign is placed right in front of this well-known and much photographed church. But it was there, so I put it in the picture.

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Here are two sketches made from the Fitzwilliam museum, sitting on the stone outside.

Fitzwilliam St, G Peck Chemist
Corner of Fitzwilliam Street

The houses are all neatly maintained. The windows have proper wooden frames, the chimneys have new concrete round their bases. The shield-like sign on the left of the road says “G Peck and Sons Dispensing Chemists, Estd 1851”. It is still a dispensing chemists, but not G Peck and son. Why do we now call chemists “pharmacies”? When did that happen?

I enjoyed the opportunity to look closely at these buildings. There’s a lot to sketch in Cambridge.

Sketching spot, 21 March 2018
Work in progress, 21 March 2018

Tiara in the Garden

Here is a woodcut of my sister’s greyhound, Tiara.

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Tiara in the Garden

This is a reduction woodcut. That means I cut the woodblock, and made a number of prints in the yellow colour, then I cut it further, and printed the grey/brown colour.

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Printing the first colour

 

Prints from the first colour
First colour

Here is work in progress on the second colour.

 

Prints drying
Woodblock on the Albion Press
Prints drying

These are printed on the Albion press at East London Printmakers:

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Albion Press, at East London Printmakers

I mixed the colours.
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Here is the finished card:
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St Edwards Passage Cambridge

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A quick sketch on a cold day. 45 minutes, standing outside the “Indigo Coffee House”. Nearby, bicycles were parked on the fence surrounding the church of St Edward, King and Martyr.

I wanted to catch the bright sunlight in Kings Parade, seen from the relative darkness of St Edwards Passage.