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 🙂

Pen and ink stetch of terracotta tile newcastle Staffordshire Cruwys — Terracotta tile, King Street, Newcastle under Lyme

Last summer, I sketched a Victorian building in Newcastle-under-Lyme. This was a fine example with plenty of details , especially the terracotta tiles. Terracotta means ‘fired earth’ -and describes a form of moulded clay masonry of a finer quality than standard bricks.

Terracotta tile, King St, Newcastle under Lyme

Sketching the building as a whole meant losing some of the finer details so I took a bit more time to draw these ornamental terracotta tiles.

A month or so later, I was sketching in London and spotted these tiles on Cross St., Islington.

Cross St Islington.jpg

The following month I noticed more tiles on The Swimmer, the pub around the corner from where our son lives off the Holloway Road.

The Swimmer sketchbook.jpg

The Swimmer sketchbook2.jpg

It was then that I decided to keep a drawn record of all the architectural terracotta tiles that I come across whilst sketching and drawing the street as they form a quiet signature of a time and place. Looking into these tiles a little further, I read that ‘by the 1860s a number of eminent English architects had recognised terracotta’s value for mass-producing ornament and fine masonry by casting from an original, combining new technology with traditional craftsmanship’. Read more about this here

I thought I would make a start by sharing these sketched examples. The sketch below was a postcard original of the Swimmer tiles for a recent fund raiser for Shape Arts

the-swimmer-islington

Finally, I will sign off with this one sketched today – a collage of tiles from a local school – Hassell Primary, Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Hassell School tile 4.jpg

Thanks for reading,

Ronnie

drawing out the best in our streets

Drawing the Street

Tag Archives: Terracotta tiles

Fenton and Families

Terracotta Trail

drawing out the best in our streets