I lived in London for a long time. Hell, I was born there. Right slap bang in the middle of it, and about a three minute walk from the Yorkshire Grey pub, which sits on the corner of Langham Street and Middleton Place in Fitzrovia. While I don’t think I visited this pub back when I was wearing nappies and gurgling, it has always felt like home. It’s just such a comfortable place to be.
When I was working in London from my mid-20s to my mid-30s, if I had a day off during the week, or if I found myself in or around Fitzrovia of an early afternoon for whatever reason, I would always find my way to the Yorkshire Grey. It’s a Sam Smith’s pub, and this is great for any beer drinker. As well as a lot of traditional ales, it has things like Alpine Lager which at 2.6% can be quaffed quite freely, especially as it costs around £3.00 a pint (in London!). But there were a lot of reasons I fell for this pub, and beers aside, it happens to have been a regular haunt for one of my favourite writers – the Philosopher, Bertrand Russell.
Broadcasting House is very close indeed, and back when Bertrand would attend debates on the radio, he would often head to the Yorkshire Grey for a drink afterwards. I like to imagine I’ve sat where he has sat, and I can see him coming up with plenty of the arguments in his essay In Praise of Idleness, while sat there and trying to think of a reason not to leave.
And even in this day and age, the proximity to Broadcasting House can still deliver memorable moments. On one of those afternoons I found myself there, I was sat on one of the picnic tables that line its exterior wall on Middleton Place doing the Independent Crossword. Behind me were quite a rambunctious crowd and it wasn’t long before I realised I recognised many of their voices yet didn’t know their faces from Adam. As I pondered 4 down, I tried to work out where I knew them from and then it struck me – Radio 4. Like many, I often have the radio on, and this is a trait I got from my mother, so for my whole life, these actors from Radio 4 have been weaving tales for me. Their faces mean nothing to me and they were all well on their way to getting sloshed, when one of the area’s other typical sights turned up. You see, there are a lot of professional photographers based in this part of London and they use the roads and pubs as backdrops when doing shoots with aspiring models. So I had a thoroughly squiffy Radio 4 drama happening behind me as a beautiful, young model was draping herself over the tables in front of me, and all the while I was trying to remember the latin name for the Armadillo so that I could get 13 across. It could only happen at the Yorkshire Grey.
So, for all of those reasons and more, I wanted the first post where I detailed the painting of a pub to feature this treasure of an establishment. So let’s dive in and see the pub I’m painting this week…
It always starts with a line. Then you build from that and a little while later, you start to see the first things that actually resemble the pub you’re painting. This is where I started, and soon, the image would really start to take shape.
Once I’ve captured the spirit of the pub, I’ll then start to work on the surrounding area. A pub looks beautiful because of itself but also because of its setting, and capturing that setting is very important. It helps to place the pub in a sympathetic environment.
When all of the pub is pencilled in, the colours can be added. The front of the Yorkshire Grey is a very distinctive green, and I wanted to get a colour that represented that down first so that it would inform the rest of the colour choices later.
Eventually, I find myself with a completely coloured image. There are still some tweaks that are needed, but ultimately, I can now start on the line work. I don’t always do line work with a fine-liner, but I find it brings out all of the details in the pub and there are often, even in the plainest of establishments, a lot of details to cover.
And after the line work is done, we have a finished pub! The Yorkshire Grey in all its glory, rendered in watercolours and ink. There were a few things that needed changing here and there but nothing big at all, and I’m very happy with the finished product.
This image is available to purchase, and if you have a favourite pub, you can commission me to paint that as well. Just drop me a line at john@yeoldepubpainter.com and say hello – I’m always happy to talk through any project you’d like me to work on. Cheers!
Ye Olde Pub Painter 