Liverpool Street station

Lunchtime at Ponti's restaurant

Today's visit to Liverpool Street station was our last sketching outing for this year. Eight sketchers gathered by platform 10 and then duly signed in at the station reception and watched a video on health and safety. Once we had been issued with our visitors passes we were allowed to roam free around the station. An hour and a half later we stopped for lunch at Ponti's restaurant to warm up and compare our artistic efforts. As usual we were all interested in the views that other people had chosen.

After lunch most of us repaired to the upstairs bar at Hamilton Hall which was the former ballroom of the Great Eastern Hotel and overlooks the station, in order to continue sketching. It has the most ornate decoration, comfortable chairs and interesting views of the downstairs bar and would be well worth visiting again with our sketch books.

One more sketching outing before Christmas

Art in the Park is going to take December off so we have organised another sketching outing for the end of November. On this occasion we will be meeting at Liverpool Street Station which is an interesting venue, is under cover and has all the facilities we might need.

We are planning to meet at 11am on Tuesday 25 November. We have been granted permission to sketch as a group so the plan is to meet by platform 10 and then we can sign in at the station reception. We will also have to watch a video on health and safety and learn about evacuation procedures in the event of the station being evacuated.

Easels are not allowed but sketching stools are permitted so long as we don't site them at the bottom of escalators or get in peoples' way. If you need to get in touch with us on the day you can phone Heather on 07899 653307.

Looking forward to seeing you all on the 25th.

November's sketching trip to Sutton House

Six artists met at Sutton House on Friday to spend time drawing, and exploring, this fascinating and atmospheric Tudor house that over the centuries has been renovated, added to, divided and fianlly restored to one dwelling. It was built in 1535 by a prominent courtier of Henry VIII, Sir Ralph Sadleir when Hackney was a village outside London. Now Hackney is a large borough in London and lost any rural charm it had a very long time ago.

However if you spend any time in the house or garden you can still feel a sense of peace and quiet and it is easy to feel you have accidentally slipped back in time.

So, while we all withdrew into our individual worlds while sketching variously in the Linenfold Parlour, the Cellar, the Georgian Parlour, the Great Hall and the garden we were able later to come together and chat in the café and admire each other's work and look forward to future sketching outings.

Next sketching outing is Friday 14 November to Sutton House

Now the weather is getting distinctly colder we have decided to move under cover with our sketch books for the next few months. We are planning a sketching trip to Sutton House in Hackney on Friday 14 November at 11am. It was built by Ralph Sadleir who was a courtier of Henry VIII and he lived in the household of Thomas Cromwell from the age of 14. The house features in Woolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and is steeped in history.

This is a National Trust property so admission is free to National Trust members. The charge for non-members is £3.50 and if there is a group of eight or more the price is reduced to £2.70 per person, they do not offer concessions. We can take dry materials with us but because of the historic nature of some of the rooms I believe we cannot use painting materials. There is a café which opens at 12 noon.

It is quarter of a mile walk from Hackney Central overground station which can be reached from Highbury & Islington station and the 106 bus from Finsbury Park runs close by the house. You can find a link for directions to a Google map here.