Victorian Terracotta Tiles | Drawing the Street

The other day I received an email via my archive blog ‘Drawing the Detail’ from a lady who mentioned that her grandparents, the Rowbothams, lived in one of these Fenton houses. I love to hear of personal connections with the buildings and streets that I draw. It brings them to life. This is a name that I can add along with the Hammersley family – more about that on the blog link above.

*Two brick built terraces in Fenton, Stoke on Trent*

I’m often asked why I choose to draw a particular street – this one threw a hook out as I was driving past when we were living in Staffordshire. I had to pull over to take a second look as I couldn’t get over how beautifully thought out it was with all the brick detailing and decorative terracotta tiles.

It also reminded me of the building where I used to work at Horsley Huber Architects – 134 Newport Road Stafford. Here’s the old work family! The photo info states that it was taken 19 years ago, 1 Jan 2003 – it must have been a mild day. There I am in the lilac top front left – still with brown hair!

*Staff at Horsley Huber Architects, sometime around 2003* *I think*

We’re all a good bit older now and we’ve since had to say goodbye to a dear friend Ken (back, 4th from right) RIP.

Returning to my drawing – these buildings are on Victoria Road and Hitchman Street, in Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent.

You can imagine that it was a real pleasure to draw a street like this – it’s an uncommon find. If you want to discover more about Stoke’s creative tiles, have a look at Ceramic City Stories.

I use a mapping nib in a Brause dip pen. This gives me a flexible line.

Last of all, here’s the final limited edition print with both streets set together within a double mount. Barewall Gallery in Burslem have a framed print in stock which you can buy online here.

As always, thanks for reading,

Ronnie 🙂

I’ve been keeping my eyes out for terracotta tiles which jazz up the fronts of late Victorian buildings and have begun to sketch and record them – their patterns and dates if provided. I had a hunch that they might give me a means to map connections with times and places.

Yesterday I was sketching in Islington, first along the Hornsey Road and then along Upper Street when I looked up and saw the very same tiles that I had sketched on a primary school in Newcastle-under-Lyme.