The Cally

 

This is Caledonian Road in north London, more commonly known as The Cally. It's been called the Cally for ever, but they felt it necessary to write it in big bold letters on the railway bridge in case people forgot. The Cally is not the area of London where I am from (I grew up in Burnt Oak), but this is where my Dad is from. He lived up the road, near the Nag's Head in Holloway. When I was a kid my dad would sometimes drive me over here when he had to visit his mates or one of my uncles, who still live locally. I was always very nervous of this area as a child, a rough place (and my own Burnt Oak was pretty rough) of villains' pubs, broken windows and dangerous alleys. It's still pretty tough, but I can appreciate the character in it now I'm grown up. Actually, I think this would be a very interesting place for a sketchcrawl (though I'd still keep my eyes open).

  

I sketched this area while I was back in London in June. One building I had to sketch was HM Prison Pentonville, the 'big house', which casts a imposing and gloomy shadow over Caledonian Road. Pentonville was opened in 1842 and has had many famous residents, such as Éamon de Valera, Dr. Crippen, John Christie (and Timothy Evans who was wrongly hanged for Christie's crimes), Oscar Wilde, and, um, George Michael. I sketched it from a cafe across the road called, appropriately, the Breakout. Condemned inmates were executed here at Pentonville until 1961. Prisons are horrible places.

  

From the Jail House to the Free House...this is actually at the back of the Breakout cafe, which looks like it was built in the space of a closed-down pub. This is part of the old pub signage around the corner from the Cally on Blundell Street. My dad actually went to school on this street, though the school is long gone. Funny that he grew up round the Cally, while I ended up in Cali(fornia). 

The Cally

August 2015 Sketchcrawl - Notes, photos and sketches

Despite the late change of date we had a really excellent turnout and a very good time during for the August Sketchcrawl of St James Park, HorseGuards and Trafalgar Square.

They even closed The Mall to cars so we could sit in the middle of the road and sketch!

At one point there were about a dozen urban sketchers perched on stools
ON THE MALL road surface - sketching impressive architecture - with perspective!

People would keep crossing the road and getting in the way of the view!

Watercolour sketch of Admiralty Arch by Lis Watkins
- who was a little nearer to the Arch.

VJ Day 70th anniversary service
on the Parade Ground at Horse Guards the previous day.
The War Memorial is at the back- next to the trees.

We assembled the day after the 70th anniversary of VJ Day at the WW2 Memorial in Horse Guards opposite the Parade ground.

I'd had this in mind for morning sketches but since the structures from the VJ Day Drumhead Service were being removed from the Parade Ground I suggested people came back to this spot in the afternoon - which a number of us did.

Hence the large number of sketches of Horse Guards Parade with the London Eye in the background.

However in the morning the major recommendation was to make the most of the fact that The Mall was 'coned off' and pedestrianised - and to to sketch things from a perspective that normally would not be possible.

In general people wended  their way from Horse Guards to the Mall and then via Admiralty Arch to Trafalgar Square. There's masses to sketch and that's good because we are back in Trafalgar square in December for the huge Christmas Tree!

Sketches from the morning session - some very impressive sketches of the Mall and Admiralty Arch

The London Eye gets everywhere!

Some impressive panoramic sketches and nice watercolours

Apparently you can get the accordion panoramic sketchbook from Cass Art.

We had a very good turnout for the Lunchtime Photo Opportunity! (Although this was maybe two thirds of the people who turned up on the day - some were still intent on sketching rather than eating!)

Urban sketchers taking a look at the sketches from the morning

In the afternoon we used the steps in between the National Gallery and the Sainsbury Wing to have a look at the sketches from the afternoon

Looking at sketches at the end of the sketchcrawl

Then some of us retired for tea and scones in the National Dining Rooms!  (Any sketchcrawl I organise always involves a cup of tea at the end - and is generally scheduled to finish near to somewhere nice to sit down!)

You can see more photos that I took:

• in the London Urban Sketchers - August 2015 (Mall) album on our Flickr account and also 
• see sketches that have been posted to Flickr in the Urban Sketchers London - Group Pool.   
• Click the photos above to go straight to larger versions on Flickr.

Katherine Tyrrell (Organiser)

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September 2015 Sketchcrawl 

Nathan is organising the Sketchcrawl for September.

The next Sketchcrawl is on Saturday 5th September when we will be visiting Blackheath, Blackheath Village and Greenwich Park.  Subscribe to the blog to get notification of the details automatically delivered to your inbox. Otherwise watch out for more details in:

• the note at the top of the right hand column of this blog
• or the USK London Sketchcrawls Page (see top menu)
• the Urban Sketchers London Facebook Group - Details and dates of forthcoming events can also be found at https://www.facebook.com/notes/urban-sketchers-london/how-to-find-out-about-urban-sketchcrawls-in-london/399571500240608.
  

August 2015 Sketchcrawl - Notes, photos and sketches