Painting the Mayflower Pub at Rotherhithe

drawn out in ink...love the clean white paper ready to paint!

first colours, earthy and fairly monchrome

blue sky brings in some cheery colour

ooh that black contrast helps, and the first bright splashes of pink and yellow

all the colours on...I may have missed a few spots. has it come alive?

I have really enjoyed painting this historic little pub on London's river bank. I have roots in this area, and so do so many people across the world! The Pilgrim fathers began their journey from the steps beside the pub, fishermen calling at Londons docks could call in and buy a stamp, and my ancestors build barges just yards away.

A painting of The Mayflower pub, Rotherhithe

Sketched out plans for a little pub in Rotherhithe. It has steps to the river and a jetty to sit out on that you can get rather wet feet at High Tide. In older times was called the Spread Eagle, and is also a registered Post Office for sailors.
Re named because the Pilgrim Fathers began their journey on the Mayflower here before calling at Plymouth. The captain is buried in the churchyard nearby.
My ancestors were barge builders here, and one was a church warden at the church where the captain is buried.
Lots of possibilities of who should go in the pub!

Dirty Dicks - an old corner of Bishopsgate

Nathaniel “Dick” Bentley was a Bishopsgate merchant in the mid 18^th Century. Tragically, his fiancée died on their wedding day. The wedding breakfast lay untouched for 30 years and the heartbroken Dick never washed or cleaned up again.

The dirty warehouse was known all over London, could the story have reached Charles Dickens and inspired Miss Havisham?

The original warehouse was demolished but the pub capitalised on the story and at one time was almost as dirty as the warehouse itself, beer puddles on the floor, cobwebs and dead cats hung from the cellar ceiling.

 Bishopsgate is seeing phenomenal changes, but still small sections, like this corner just past Liverpool Street Station, cling on and remind us of how things once were.