Let's draw Battersea Power Station - Saturday 18 February 2023

Sketch by Andrea Deng

For our second sketchwalk of 2023 we will be drawing the recently opened Battersea Power Station SW11 8AL, one of the newest and most vibrant neighbourhoods of London.

[Led by Andrea Deng and Jimmy Lu]

The Battersea Power Station, dominated by its four iconic chimneys and deeply rooted in popular culture, is now open to the public as a new shopping and leisure destination with pedestrian-centred public spaces, parkland and gardens.

This decommissioned Grade II* listed coal-fired power station is one of the world’s largest brick buildings and a prime example of Industrial Art Deco. The recent redevelopment of the area includes the addition of several residential buildings and public spaces designed by internationally renowned architects, with new public riverside access along the Thames.  If you'd like to know more about this exciting new development, here’s more about the master plan.

There is no cost, just wrap up warm and bring your sketching kit.

Our meeting point for the day is the North Entrance,
which faces the River Thames.

Meeting point

Our meeting point for the day is the North Entrance, which faces the River Thames (see photo above). If the weather is fair, we will meet in the square outside the North Entrance. If it's rainy, we will meet inside the North Entrance.

Options for drawing

Indoors

Battersea Power Station

All of the ground floor and Level 1 are open to the public, so you have plenty of choices to draw inside. 

• Turbine Hall A is Art Deco in style, reflecting the 1930s when construction of the Power Station began.

• Turbine Hall B is Brutalist in design, a nod to the 1950s when the building was completed. On the ground floor of Turbine Hall B is Battersea Bookshop, an independent neighbourhood bookshop that specialises in art, architecture and design, and showcases ‘some of the unique architectural elements of the iconic Battersea Power Station’.

• Lift 109, 'London's epic new viewing experience', is a glass platform lift that rises more than 100 metres to the top of the northwest chimney for spectacular 360 degree views. You will need to book in advance to secure a ticket.

Outdoors

• Electric Boulevard - A new pedestrianised high street that links the Power Station to the new Battersea Power Station Tube station.

• The Coaling Jetty - A 110m long Grade II listed jetty with a great view over the Thames and the Power Station. The Coaling Jetty has been redesigned as a riverside garden, opening up a new public space along the River Thames.

• Phase 3 residential units with iconic twisted shapes designed by Frank Ghery, and the serpentine ribbon designed by Foster+Partners.

• Battersea Park and the Peace Pagoda - Battersea Park is a 200 acre Victorian park with a boating lake, tea gardens, a children's zoo and other attractions. The London Peace Pagoda is one of 80 around the world built by Buddhist nuns and monks as a spiritual focus for reflections on world peace and non violence. There is a panoramic view of Chelsea Embankment from the pagoda.

Sketch by Andrea Deng

Key times and meeting points

11 AM

Meet in the square in front of the Battersea Power Station North Entrance, towards the River Thames (see photo above). In case of inclement weather, we will meet inside the North Entrance.

1 PM

Meet in the square in front of the Battersea Power Station North Entrance (facing the river) to show sketchbooks and take our lunchtime group photo. In case of inclement weather, we will meet inside the North Entrance.

3.30 PM

Meet back at the same spot to look at the day’s work and take the afternoon group photo. In case of inclement weather, we will meet inside the North Entrance.

Afterwards

If you would like to linger for a while to chat (and sketch!), we will then move to the nearby Battersea Brewery.

Practical information

Battersea Power Station is located in Circus Road West, Nine Elms, London SW11 8AL. 

The main entrance is in Circus Road North, with another entrance in Circus Road South.

Entrance to the Power Station is free of charge, although some of the areas on the upper levels are still under development. There are cafés, toilets and plenty of places where you can eat.

The nearest Tube station is Battersea Power Station (Northern Line). Battersea Park (Overground and Southern) and Queenstown Road (South Western) are also within a 10-15 minute walking distance.

Another option is to arrive by boat, via the Thames Clippers service at Battersea Power Station Pier. The Power Station is a 15-minute journey from Embankment, 20 minutes from Blackfriars, 30 minutes from Putney, and 40 minutes from Canary Wharf.

For additional practical information please consult the Battersea Power Station website.

Covid guidance

Urban Sketchers London remains alert to national guidance about COVID-19 and its variants. Even though restrictions have been lifted, it's sensible to take all necessary precautions to keep ourselves and fellow sketchers safe throughout the event. The risk of infection for outdoor events is low, but basic guidance still applies:

• Please do not attend if you feel unwell
• Wear a face covering when you're close to others
• Give people space
• Practice good hand hygiene.

Remember to tag us when you post your sketches on social media!

#urbansketcherslondon #usklondon

Location map

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See you at Battersea Power Station!

 

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Let's draw Battersea Power Station - Saturday 18 February 2023

‘Sticks in the Smoke’ - Nick Andrew’s sketchbook project exploring London’s public green spaces

Nick's blog 'Sticks in the Smoke' 

Drawing has always been an important part of my life: a passion, a need, a means of getting to know the world around me, of working out ideas and of trying things out, of playing. But always with an eye on how I may progress beyond drawing.

However, over the past few years I’ve started to see drawing as an act that I can enjoy for its own sake. This began in 2016 with a sketchbook-based project entitled ‘Sticks in the Smoke’, drawing in London’s public green spaces and writing about them in my blog. ‘Sticks in the Smoke’ refers to a rural artist from ‘the Sticks’ visiting London - ‘The Smoke’.

I started working in gardens and parks chosen at random from the three central London boroughs: City of London, City of Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea. My first was on a cold, misty January day at St Paul’s Cathedral Garden, standing amongst a growth of dogwood and enjoying the contrast between the straggly winter garden and the busy rush of city life. 

St Paul's Cathedral Garden
Mixed media sketchbook drawing 21 January 2016

In that first year I drew in over 50 gardens, exploring parts of the city that I had never visited before and realising that they all have important tales to tell about the history and development of our capital. And, while standing drawing for several hours, I was meeting local people who go there on a regular basis and have stories about how the spaces are used today.

Ropers Garden, for example, next to the Chelsea Embankment, is on the site of riverside orchards that belonged to Sir Thomas More in the 16th century. They were a wedding gift to his daughter Margaret on her marriage in 1521 to William Roper, a lawyer and member of parliament.

Ropers Gardens, Chelsea
Mixed media sketchbook drawing 19 October 2016

I made two drawings here in October 2016 -- one of them includes ‘The Awakening’, a beautiful bronze by Gilbert Ledward RA, and in the other is a stone sculpture by Sir Jacob Epstein, ‘Woman Taking off Her Dress’. (Epstein's first studio was in a warehouse on this site before the First World War.) A taxi driver who had parked his cab nearby wandered over to look at my drawing, and we talked about art for a minute or two. Scrutinising the Epstein, he narrowed his eyes: “Not really my cup of tea, mate. Reckon the best bit is the plinth!” 

St Mary's Staining
Mixed media sketchbook drawing 18 August 2016

On a hot day in August 2016 I drew three gardens -- St Mary’s Aldermanbury, St Mary’s Staining and St Olave’s Silver Street -- within a stone's throw of one another just south of London Wall. All of these green spaces are in the footprints of churches which were destroyed in the Great Fire of London, which had happened exactly 350 years before. In each garden I found patches of tree shade where I could draw, and as my wax pastels melted in the heat, I tried to imagine the filthy, narrow and waste-ridden streets of this part of London during the heatwave of August 1666 when, less than a mile away, a small fire that began in a bakery fanned into a thundering inferno.

St Olave's, Silver Street
Mixed media sketchbook drawing 18 August 2016

The following year I started to explore green spaces further afield in London and south of the river. In late March 2017 I made two drawings exploring the north part of Battersea Park -- the first time I’d set foot here since overlooking it from my student hall of residence, a long time ago! It was a beautiful, warm spring day. The park was teeming with runners, dog walkers, cyclists, tourists, families and parents with buggies. Groups of schoolkids on Easter holiday were playing football, their jackets and scooters in a heap. The Peace Pagoda rose through still-bare tree branches with a hazy glimpse of the cityscape beyond, and river breezes softened traffic noise to a gentle hum.

Peace Pagoda, Battersea Park
Mixed media sketchbook drawing 30 March 2017

The last Sticks in the Smoke sketchbook drawing I did was in September 2019. By then I had made well over 100 drawings in 99 green spaces. Pressure of commissions and exhibitions made it more difficult for me to get up to London. And then, of course, within a few months came the pandemic and lockdowns.

When I can't get up to London, I work on other drawing projects closer to my home in rural Wiltshire. My most recent project is ’A Gap in the Market’, a year-long series of drawings in Salisbury’s historic Charter Market, which I started in September 2020. The drawings were exhibited at Fisherton Mill, Salisbury in August and September 2021. 

Winter Planes, Salisbury Market Place
Mixed media sketchbook drawing 2 February 2021

Drawing at Salisbury Charter Market 21 August 2021

As a result of my Sticks in the Smoke project I was asked to provide the illustrations for a book, ’Bloomsbury's Squares and Gardens’, which was published in 2020 by the Association of Bloomsbury’s Squares and Gardens. To help promote this, I was invited up to London to draw during the Bloomsbury Festival in October 2021. It was wonderful to be working in London again. I made a drawing in a different Bloomsbury garden square each day, meeting a lot of people and getting an insight into Bloomsbury as almost a village community. 

St George's Garden, Bloomsbury
Mixed media sketchbook drawing 20 October 2021

Over two afternoons I made the panoramic drawing of Bedford Square below. I liked the shadows streaking across the paving, underlying the rounded shape of the garden. Each day I was working almost until dusk, busy city life happening all around. On the second evening I was packing my things when I heard a child shouting “Look, LOOK!!”. As I watched, a ragged russet form ripped across the street through a gap in the traffic: a fox! It stood for a moment by the park railings, sniffing the evening air, then slipped into the dark sanctuary of the garden undergrowth!

Bedford Square, Bloomsbury
Mixed media sketchbook drawing 21 October 2021

In June 2022 the pieces produced during the Bloomsbury Festival will be exhibited in one of the garden squares during London Open Gardens weekend. Fingers crossed!

Also in 2022 I look forward to picking up my Sticks in the Smoke project again. I feel I’ve hardly scratched the surface of London’s green spaces!

Nick Andrew on Wordpress

Nick Andrew on Instagram

Nick Andrew on Linktree 

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Nick Andrew on mixed media drawing

 

I like the variation, contrast and freedom offered by mixed media drawing. I generally use Faber-Castell's Pitt oil base pencils, black Uni-ball Air pens, black drawing ink applied with a stick (Costa coffee stirrers are the best, or a piece of twig picked up from the ground!), waterproof wax pastels (Caran D’Ache Neocolour I), watercolours, and a Pentel correction fluid pen (my secret weapon!). I work in Saunders-Waterford HP sketchbooks.

My drawings over the past two years or so are larger-scale pieces -- not sketchbook drawings --  on Saunders Waterford HP watercolour paper, measuring 76 x 56cm. For the larger panoramic pieces (152 x 76cm), I fix two sheets together using Filmoplast acid-free document repair tape on the back. 

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‘Sticks in the Smoke’ - Nick Andrew’s sketchbook project exploring London’s public green spaces