St Benedict Street - Norwich Urban Sketchers

Urban Sketchers Norwich met at St Benedict Street for our monthly sketchcrawl  on Sunday 17th May. We met at the Bicycle shop cafe.

 

    

Here are some sketches I made on the day. 

St Benedict's Street is one of my favourite streets in Norwich and is part of Norwich Lanes just off the main City Centre.

 It's a creative and cultural part of the city offering great music art and theatre. It houses some of the best independent shops,cafes and restaurants. 

The architecture is from the Medieval period adding to its distinctive character . 

                           

I have sketched many of the cafes, bars and restaurants in the area over the last few years.

Silvertown Regeneration Project East London

I had a great opportunity to join some of the London urban sketchers last Saturday  documenting the regeneration of Silvertown, Millennium Mills in East London Docklands. The plan is to transform it into London's New Creative capital . This coincides with a project I am doing as part of my masters in Norwich documenting a deprived area which is supposedly going to be regenerated in the near future.

Sue Pownall, Evelyn Rowland, Lis Watkins, James Hobbs, Julie Bolus,
Isabelle Laliberte, Olha Pryymak and Nathan Brenville

It was a really enjoyable day sketching as a group and seeing everyones unique  responses to the place . We had to wear High Visibility jackets.  The whole place was really dramatic especially with the gusty wind, the dark skies and cumulus clouds setting the scene. I was overcome and daunted  by the fantastic and colossal Millennium Mills built in 1905 lying  abandoned in a post industrial Urban landscape. The roar of the planes overhead  taking off from the nearby London City airport added to the atmosphere. I started off sketching the Grade two listed Grain Silo which was not so intimidating in volume and less windows to deal with!! Here are some of my sketches and photographs from the day.

Millennium Mills - Iconic Wasteland Silvertown

       

   

Grain 'D' Silo - Silvertown