The Paragon at Blackheath

On Saturday I went on a long walk to join up with London Urban Sketchers who were sketching at Blackheath (see map at end!)

I got there in time for lunch and then spent the afternoon sketching The Paragon which started life as seven pairs of houses linked by colonnaded sections built as part of the Cator Estate. They've now been split into flats. My friend Jean and her husband live in the one on the left

Western end of The Paragon at Blackheath
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchboook

We sat for most of the sketching in the afternoon under leaden grey skies - wondering if we'd need to whip out umbrellas very fast. It was certainly cold. Then just as I was getting to the end of the drawing the sun came out and produced one of those very pale turquoise skies.

Then the clouds came over and it went back to being grey!

I finished the drawing while sat in the cold but added the colour when I got home. I also need to add more grass cutting lines!

More sketches - from lunch and tea - to follow.

These are the people who came to Blackheath on Saturday - I'm taking the photo.

London Urban Sketchers at Blackheath - the end of the day lay down of sketches and group photo

This is the map of my walk. The walk from Cutty Sark Station on the Docklands Light Railway is very pleasant as it takes you through the park (uphill for most of the way) and then across the heath - so only a tiny bit of traffic for the whole walk.

From the station to the Princess of Wales pub (where we had lunch) in Montpelier Row in Blackheath is 1.4 miles and is uphill for half the distance. It's supposed to take 28 minutes and burn 114 calories - which (according to my invaluable Citymapper app) apparently equate to 0.6 packets of crisps or O.6 pints of beer. Just so you know....

The walk from Greenwich Cutty Sark Station to Blackheath.
(click to see a larger image)

The Leaning Dome of St. Paul's Cathedral

It wasn't until I got home that I realised that I'd drawn that well known new tourist attraction The Leaning Dome of St Paul's Cathedral while sketching the spectacular views from the roof terrace of One New Change on Friday.

The "Leaning" Dome of St Paul's Cathedral
11" x 8", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I really should learn to repeatedly check my verticals because I know I've got a tendency to lean one way when it comes to verticals!

I used to draw the interior of St Paul's Cathedral and always started by drawing a vertical line right down the centre of my page so I could keep track of the verticals as I looked up and down!

See my website for more drawings of the interior of St Paul's and the view of St Paul's from the South Bank of the River Thames

A view of Charing Cross Station and Embankment Gardens

This is a view of where I used to work for nearly five years - in a building which is right in the middle of the sketch just behind those trees in the Victoria Embankment Gardens across the River Thames from the fifth floor balcony of the Royal Festival Hall which is where I was! It was done during the Drawing London Group's sketch outing on 31st July.

A view of Charing Cross Station and Embankment Gardens
6" x 17", pen and ink and coloured pencils in Artcoe Bluebell sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Do click the image to see a much larger version in my new panoramic sketchbook which is currently getting a lot of use!

Confusingly the gardens are right next to Charing Cross Station (on the left of the sketch) not Victoria. They are so called because the area of reclaimed river on which they stand is called the Victoria Embankment.

The gardens were created in 1874 after Sir Joseph Bazalgette built the northern intercept sewer and the northern embankment of the river Thames. Victoria Embankment Main Garden formerly Adelphi Gardens was the second of the four gardens to be created. The gardens as a whole are the home to numerous statues and monuments to the great and the good as well York House Watergate which marks where the River Thames originally ran prior to the building of the intercept sewer.
City of Westminster - Victoria Embankment Gardens

In front of the gardens you can see Embankment Pier where a number (but not all) of the riverboats stop. The link is to the timetable maintained by Transport for London.

The big building in the middle right is The Adephi - but it's not the original Adelphi.

The current building was erected in 1938. It replaced a beautiful riverside development of 24 houses built from 1772 on by John, Robert, James and William Adam (Adelphoi is Greek for brothers). Among its occupants were David Garrick (1717-79) at No. 6 Adelphi Terace (1772-79), George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) at No. 10 (1899-1927) and Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) (he worked at No. 8 for Arthur Bloomfield, the architect from 1862 to 1867).
walking informal education - the embankment to great russell street

The building I used to work in was opposite the Adelphi at 1-3 Robert Street. This is Grade II listed and is described in British History Online. Number 3 can boast of many famous residents - including John Adam himself.

No.3 Robert Street was built as a private house where John Adam himself resided from 1778-1785. This building can boast of other famous inhabitants: JM Barrie, best known as the author of Peter Pan, the poet Thomas Hood, Sir John Galsworthy novelist and playwright, along with other eminent artists and writers.
History of 3 Robert Street / my links

It's a really lovely building - with stunning views of the Thames - and is one I must try and sketch one day!

You can also see Cleopatra's Needle on the extreme right (there are two more in Paris and New York). I ran out of space before I could get the Savoy Hotel in where Monet and Whistler and other artists used to paint the Thames. It's shrouded in scaffolding and protective netting at the moment and does not make a good subject for a sketch.

The fifth floor balcony of the Royal Festival Hall is a really excellent place to sketch the river, practice sketching boats as they move up and down the river and sketch people passing by on the south bank of the Thames below. I can also recommend the E.A.T Cafe below for sandwiches and general lunchtime refreshment.

You can see some more sketches I've done from this location last October in RWS Friends: Sketching at the Royal Festival Hall.

My sketchercise for the day was walking home along the River Thames Walkway on the south bank and across the Millenium Bridge to Blacks at St Pauls where I tried to get a replacement for my pedometer which had stopped working. I've now worked out that when the manufacturer says it's not waterproof it actually means it's not "London humidity" proof! I'm now trying to find one which is humidity proof!

RWS Sketching Day in South Kensington

Our scheduled RWS Sketching Day on Sunday was at the Science Museum in South Kensington to sketch but it was a such a lovely day in London that I opted for sketching outside.

I ended up sitting in the shade on the steps of the Royal College of Music sketching the back of the Royal Albert Hall.

South aspect of the Royal Albert Hall, South Kensington
11.5" x 8.5", pencil and coloured pencils in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Followed by sitting in the Cafe Consort in the Royal Albert Hall sketching the architecture Royal College of Music above where I'd been sitting.

I can highly recommend the first stop for music while you work as the students had the windows of the basement music practice rooms open and I can cofnrim that get a very good standard of piano practice at the Royal College!

Royal College of Music from the Cafe Consort, Royal Albert Hall 11.5" x 8.5", pencil and coloured pencils in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

It was an interesting day in relation to studying the impact of light on red brick. The first sketch of the Albert Hall was in bright sunlight and one of the Royal College was 'contre jour' with all the brickwork in shadow.

We had lunch in the Blue Cafe at the far end of the Science Museum. There's lots to sketch (the Apollo 10 command module 1969, Stephenson's Rocket locomotive 1829 etc) - just not a lot of places to sit to sketch out of the way of people on the ground floor. I should think week days might be quieter.

I came home with a present from the Science Museum bookshop for "he who must not be bored while I sketch or watch art programmes" - a facsimile copy of an Eagle Annual with a selection of highlights from the 1950s!

I too used to read the Eagle comic when I was little - Dan Dare rules OK?!

Links:

• Royal Albert Hall
• Royal College of Music
• Wikipedia - South Kensington
• Wikipedia - Eagle Comic
  
• Wikipedia - Dan Dare