Tag: Southwark

Royal Oak Borough, 44 Tabard Street, SE1

Here is the Royal Oak Borough, sketched on a sunny day in August.

The Royal Oak Borough, 44 Tabard Street, SE1 4JU, sketched 25 August 2026 in Sketchbook 17

This pub serves Harvey’s beer and is listed in the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) guide.

According to the landlord, the pub was built in 1825. The wooden bar inside is newer, but retains the old design. Outside there are fun Victorian architectural features. See the highly original “keystone” arrangement on the first floor window, and the flourishes around the chimney.

Keystone arrangement
Chimney with flourishes
Front door and lamp
https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/view-item?i=117908
Tabard Street in 1913: Royal Oak just visible in the centre left, on the left of the street.
London Picture Archive Record No 115680

The chimney flourishes are useful because they enable the pub to be easily identified on old photos. See for example this one, which is in the London Picture Archive (click the picture to go to the London Picture Archive). The Royal Oak is the only building surviving from this 1913 view.

In that 1913 picture you can see the huge sign on the angle at the corner of the pub, advertising “Courage” ales. This was a Courage pub up to 19971 when it became the first Harvey’s tied pub in London.

Detail from London Picture Archive photo

The Royal Oak is near Borough Underground Station.

Location of The Royal Oak Borough, near Borough Underground Station (Northern Line, Bank Branch)

As I was sketching, people walked past, deep in conversation.

Worldly wisdom:
“Your options are limited without Maths and English Grade 4 or 5. That’s just the way the world works.”

And running.
“He runs on his toes. Maybe I’m running wrong?”
“No, bro, you’re not running wrong.”

It’s endlessly fascinating, just standing, looking and listening, on London streets.

Here are some snapshots from my sketching expedition, Thank you to the landlord Mike, who kindly brought me a chair, and welcomed me into the pub for a very welcome drink on that hot day.

Thirsty work, sketching.
Sketchbook 17 page spread
  1. Harvey’s took over the pub in 1997 according to https://www.spbw.beer/lpoty-2/. The current landlord told me that the Royal Oak was Harvey’s first tied pub in London. ↩︎

Albury Buildings, Boyfield St, Southwark, London SE1

I sketched this block of flats in Southwark, towards the end of an afternoon.

Albury Buildings1, Boyfield Street, Southwark, London SE1 0SD, sketched 24 August 2026 in Sketchbook 17

This block, and the block opposite, Clandon House, were completed in 1897.

Pevsner2describes these buildings as “noteworthy early L.C.C. [London County Council] housing of 1896-7” with “quirky Arts and Crafts details”. These, and nearby blocks between Rushworth Street and King’s Bench Street, were designed by R.M. Taylor for the L.C.C.’s housing branch. They are listed Grade II, listing entry 13783763.

I found the building dignified and beautiful, with its arches, railings, and plant pots. The buildings are interesting because they represent the beginnings of the state taking some responsibility for people’s housing4.

During the 19th century, the industrial revolution drew many workers to London. By the middle of the century many of these workers were living in appalling conditions. The government of the day did not see housing as any part of its role. Social reformers such as Octavia Hill made valiant attempts to provide better housing, by raising money from investors. The Peabody Trust, funded from the fortune of a London-based American banker George Peabody, was also building what we would now call social housing. But the rents were too high for the poorest Londoners, who continued to live in unsanitary and crowded conditions. Members of the clergy, reformers and politicians wrote articles drawing attention to this misery.5

By 1890 the government was starting to take positive action. A “Housing of the Working Classes Act” (1890) gave London County Council the power and the duty to replace at least half of the housing that was demolished in improvement schemes for roads and railways. Only half of the housing is to be replaced by the council, note. In his book “Metropolitan Dreams” John Boughton notes that this Act “provided the basis of the relative surge in council house building that followed.” Council house building was controversial. Conservative politicians in power at the time “saw it [the Act], at most, as a small shift towards increased state responsibility but retained their basic belief in the efficacy of the free market and fear (to use a later idiom) of a ‘dependency culture’ fostered by state provision.”6

The London County Council was formed by the Local Government Act of 1888, and the first elections in 1889, just 7 years before Albury Buildings were completed. A subset of the LCC was the “Housing of the Working Classes” branch. This group was influenced by socialist thinkers including William Morris, who is now remembered for his textile designs but who, in his time, was a campaigner for the dignity of working people. So the Arts and Crafts movement, through William Morris and others, was influential at the time of the construction of Albury Buildings. Hence the ornamental railings, the arches, and the balconies.

The arches are open: I could have walked in and along the balconies.

Arches to stairways
Wiring

Albury Buildings is now part of the Boyfield Street Estate managed by Southwark Borough Council, who own the freehold. Some are social rent dwellings7, and others are privately owned leaseholds, selling on platforms such as “Rightmove”.

As I sketched people were walking home from work. A passing man asked me, “Is it an architectural drawing, or just for fun?”

“Just for fun”, I replied.

“Good!” he declared, and walked on.

  1. “Albury Buildings” is the name written on the building. In some references it is called “Albury House”. ↩︎
  2. LONDON 2: SOUTH by Nikolaus Pevsner and Bridget Cherry ISBN 0 14 0710.47 7 2001 reprint, page 591 ↩︎
  3. Listing entry by Historic England https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1378376 ↩︎
  4. Another early example of social housing is the Boundary Estate, Arnold Circus which I have sketched previously . ↩︎
  5. For example,”The Bitter Cry of Outcast London” by Rev. ANDREW MEARNS, London Congregational Union, Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, E.C., and William C. Preston (1883) https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/55316/pg55316-images.html
    This pamphlet describes the appalling conditions in graphic detail, and also gives a sense of the moral panic that was felt by this clergyman and others. In the crowded conditions, incest was all but inevitable, and people could not go to church. Here’s an extract [all quotes are from the pamphlet reproduced online by Project Gutenberg]:
    “Whilst we have been building our churches and solacing ourselves with our religion and dreaming that the millennium was coming, the poor have been growing poorer, the wretched more miserable, and the immoral more corrupt; the gulf has been daily widening which separates the lowest classes of the community from our churches and chapels, and from all decency and civilization….“
    The authors go on to describe the conditions. Here is one description [page 9]:
    “Every room in these rotten and reeking tenements houses a family, often two. In one cellar a sanitary inspector reports finding a father, mother, three children and four pigs! In another room a missionary found a man ill with small pox, his wife just recovering from her eighth confinement, and the children running about half naked and covered with dirt. Here are seven people living in one underground kitchen, and a little dead child lying in the same room. Elsewhere is a poor widow, her three children, and a child who had been dead thirteen days.”
    The authors propose state intervention [page 24]:
    “Large spaces have been cleared of fever-breeding rookeries, to make way for the building of decent habitations, but the rents of these are far beyond the means of the abject poor. They are driven to crowd more closely together in the few stifling places still left to them; and so Dives makes a richer harvest out of their misery, buying up property condemned as unfit for habitation, and turning it into a gold-mine because the poor must have shelter somewhere, even though it be the shelter of a living tomb.
    The State must make short work of this iniquitous traffic, and secure for the poorest the rights of citizenship; the right to live in something better than fever dens; the right to live as something better than the uncleanest of brute beasts.”
    ↩︎
  6. The history of social housing is from John Bougham’s book “Metropolitan Dreams” ISBN978-1-78478-739-4. The parts I’ve quoted here are from Chapter 1: “How to provide Housing for the People”. ↩︎
  7. Social rent houses in “Albury Buildings” are listed on “https://uksocialhousing.com” under postcode SE1 0SD as council rents. ↩︎

Bishops Hall, 8 Ayres Street SE1

This unassuming door leads to a spectacular hall. This is 8 Ayres Street, the entrance to Bishops Hall, formerly known as Redcross Hall.

The Ayres Street entrance to Bishops Hall, 8 Ayres Street, sketched 22 August 2026, in Sketchbook 17

When I sketched this door I didn’t know about the surprising building behind it. I had just walked past the tiled frontage, and the pointed doors, and thought it dignified and unusual. I had seen the view from Redcross Gardens, but hadn’t connected the front to the back.

View of Bishops Hall from Redcross Gardens, photo credit unique property company
Sketch map showing Redcross Hall, marked in red.

There is an informative estate agents description online, undated. This praises the “brick arched windows, tiling, historically distressed herringbone parquet floor and the ingenious hammer-beamed roof joists that reach the apex of the internal roof line”. It sounds amazing.

The black door in my drawing threads through a passage into Bishops Hall at the back. In the front is a different building, number 8A Ayres Street, which is called “George Bell House”. Both are listed Grade II.1

Ayers Street numbers 8 and 8A

Redcross Hall was opened by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1888. It was designed by Elijah Hoole, with interior decorations by Walter Crane. 2

Interior of Redcross Hall as designed, image from English Illustrated Magazine 1893 via Layers of London. You can see the pointed windows at the back, which give onto Redcross Garden. Ayres Street was called “Whitecross Street” at that time.

The development was influenced by the ideas of social reformer Octavia Hill. The hall was created as a community theatre and “living room” for people of the area, in conjunction with Redcross Gardens which adjoin. The cottages further north along Ayres Street, to the left of my drawing, were built at the same time. This was 19th century philanthropy in action.2

Redcross Gardens are still there: beautiful, tranquil and a community resource. Bishops Hall is now privately owned.

Sales particularsDownload

Number 8A, George Bell house, is a separate building from number 8. It is the studio for Whistledown Productions who make podcasts, and programmes for Radio 4.

This is a striking example of the surprises that abound in London. It’s amazing what you find simply by strolling about.

“Whstledown Productions” at 8A Ayres Street
  1. Historic England listing entry is here: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1376545?section=official-list-entry ↩︎
  2. Additional information from Layers of London: https://www.layersoflondon.org/map/records/red-cross-hall ↩︎

National Theatre and 76 South Bank

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…..!

2 Morocco Street, Bermondsey, London SE1

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.

RW Autos website

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:

1976 photo, Building in Morocco Street, record number 51956
image source: (c) The London Archives (City of London Corporation), picture used under licence reference #007089
https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/view-item?i=54304&WINID=1730309548612

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.
  1. 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 ↩︎
  2. 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

21 and 23 Park Street, Borough SE1 “Take Courage”

I enjoy the marvellous trigonometry of this roof, and the encouraging slogan on the wall.

21 and 23 Park Street, Borough, Southwark, London SE1. Sketched 30th August 2023, 2pm.

The slogan is for a brewery, Courage.
This house was built in 1820 for the managers of the Anchor Brewery, then on this site. The Anchor pub is on the river Thames nearby.

Map from “Borough Yards” poster (rotated to put North at the top)

The building, and its cast iron railing, is listed Grade II, number 1385752. When I searched for the list entry in the Historic England register, I found, to my surprise, that the bollards in my picture have their own special listing, number 1385753 “

“5 cast iron Canon posts 1 inscribed “CLINK 1812”

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1385753?section=official-list-entry

So I had to go back and have a closer look at them. Why were they listed? The list entry does not say. There are some bollards in London which are former cannon. It’s always a delight to discover them. They can be positively identified because you can see the indentation or hole near the base, which is where the gunpowder used to be poured in. Also they sometimes have protrusions about two-thirds down where they used to pivot on their gun-carriage. Sometimes the base is flattened on one side. Here are some examples of cannon (click the image to enlarge and see location):

I was unable to find on these 21 Park Street bollards any characteristic which confirmed they might have been cannon. The listing says they are “canon posts” – “canon” spelt like that – not “cannon”. The words “CLINK 1812” were still just about visible on the bollard which is on the right in my drawing. Here are some photos of the posts outside 21 Park Street. Click to enlarge and see captions. Do you think they might be real cannon, or perhaps the word “canon” simply describes a design of post.

“Clink” was the name of the area, from about 1127. It was called the “Liberty of Clink”. The designation “Liberty” implied that it was a civic area under the jurisdiction of the local manor, rather than the King, or the City of London. Famously, certain activities, including theatres, which were forbidden in the City of London were permitted here. The Liberty of Clink was abolished in 1889 and amalgamated into the Southwark in the County of London.

Here are some photos of work in progress on the drawing:


Drawing size 10″ x 8″ on Arches papers 300gsm NOT watercolour paper, in a sketchbook made by Wyvern Bindery.

Watercolours by Daniel Smith:

  • ultramarine blue
  • fired gold ochre
  • green gold
  • burnt umber
  • yellow line is naples yellow
  • All blacks and greys are Ultramarine Blue plus Burnt Umber

A notice on 21 Park Street reads:

The tree closest to this building
 is planted in fond memory of 
Tom Quinlivan 1934-1996 
long time resident of Park Street.

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?

Cornwall Road, London SE1 – packaging print

Here is another packaging print. This one shows Bridge ELR-XTD Structure 20 on Cornwall Road (N) between Charing Cross and Waterloo East, South East London. The road that leads off to the left is Sandell Street SE1. The road under the bridge is Cornwall Road.

The print is made using the intaglio process. The plate is a milk carton.

Railway bridge on Cornwall Road, SE1, Packaging print made on 3rd September 2022, about A3 size

Here is the plate, front and back:

Plate: print side
Plate: back

The plate is made by peeling away the metallic substance inside the milk carton, then painting it with shellac to make it stronger. I describe the process in this post.

I used traditional etching ink, “Shop mix – Bone Black” from Intaglio Printmaker, whose shop, as it happens, is not far from this railway bridge.

Here’s a video of the print being peeled away:

Here is the print and the plate:

Plate (left) and print (right)
Print (left) and plate (right)

The plate made 8 prints.

Here is detail of the print:

For more of my prints made with packaging material, click on this link:

Packaging Prints

Great Suffolk Street, Railway arch

Huge brick arches carry the railway lines into Waterloo Station. Here is a view looking North up Great Suffolk Street.

Great Suffolk Street railway arch, monoprint #3 of 6. Printed image size 12″ x 9″. On Fabriano Unica paper, 20″ x14″

This is a packaging monoprint. It is an intaglio print from a “plate” made from a milk carton. Here is the plate:

Inked plate (front)
Inked plate (back)

I’ve described the process in this blog post: Print plates made of packaging. The basic method is to use the shiny metallic surface inside the carton. I cut out the shapes I want and peel back the shiny surface to reveal a rougher surface which takes the ink. The yellow colour you see on the plate is shellac, a varnish that I paint on to make the plate last a little longer.

The plates are quite fragile, and can only make a limited number of prints. Here is number 6:

Great Suffolk Street railway arch, monoprint #6 of 6. Printed image size 12″ x 9″. On Agawami Washi Kitakata Japanese paper, 20″ x1 4″

I made all the prints on the Henderson press at East London Printmakers, Stepney. I used Chabonnel F66 traditional oil-based etching ink.

Colechurch House – monoprint

Colechurch House on the South Bank is a brutalist office block. It makes a good subject for a packaging print. Since it is a a 1960s block, I added a 1960s type shape in chine collé.

Colechurch House – monoprint and chine collé, paper size,15″ x 12″ Shoji Baku Japanese Paper

The chine collé paper is Khadi Lokta Coloured saffron washi paper from Atlantis Art (ref: KPNI SA). The background paper for this print is Shoji Baku paper from Shepherds Bookbinders (ref: LRG 1859). The ink is Charbonnel traditional etching ink. I printed this on the Henderson Press at East London Printmakers. Here is a video of the “print reveal” (17seconds, silent):

Thanks to Evonne at East London Printmakers for filming me!

Here are the other 4 prints from this plate. They are all on a different, but similar paper: Tosa Washi from Shepherds, (ref: J632180)

The print was based on a sketch of Colechurch House last year. See this post:

Colechurch House, London Bridge SE1

Aficionados of 20th Century brutalist architecture need to hasten to appreciate Colechurch House. It is due for demolition and redevelopment. This month’s post in the marvellous “London Inheritance” site informed me about the planning application, so I rushed over there to draw a picture before the building became swathed in plastic. I drew this picture looking over the railings from London Bridge. This position commanded an excellent view of Colechurch House, but…

Here are more examples of the technique using a plate made from packaging material. I have written about the process here.

Cornwall Road, London SE1 – packaging print

Here is another packaging print. This one shows Bridge ELR-XTD Structure 20 on Cornwall Road (N) between Charing Cross and Waterloo East, South East London. The road that leads off to the left is Sandell…

Great Suffolk Street, Railway arch

Huge brick arches carry the railway lines into Waterloo Station. Here is a view looking North up Great Suffolk Street. This is a packaging monoprint. It is an intaglio print from a “plate” made from…

Colechurch House – monoprint

Colechurch House on the South Bank is a brutalist office block. It makes a good subject for a packaging print. Since it is a a 1960s block, I added a 1960s type shape in chine…

The Boston Arms – monoprint

The Boston Arms is in Tufnell Park, London, 178 Junction Road N19. I love the way this building presides over the junction. This is one of five prints I made with this plate made from…

Museum of London EC2 – monoprint

Here is an image of The Museum of London, in the south west corner of the Barbican: The “plate” is made from a UHT milk carton. Here is the back of the used plate: Here…

London Television Centre – monoprint

Here’s another “packaging” monoprint. This was made using an empty box of tissues. This is a tower block on the South bank of the river Thames, seen from the North bank. That’s the river in…

Walberswick Huts – monoprint

Here is a “packaging” monoprint I made of the huts in Walberswick. The print is made using a discarded carton from a box of aspirin. It looks like this: The brown colour is shellac, a…

Anchor Brewhouse, Horselydown Old Stairs, SE1

I am trying an experimental monoprint technique. The idea is to use packaging material to make intaglio “plates” which are then printed using an etching press. This is the first one. I printed it yesterday…