28 Drawings Later is an annual challenge that originated on Facebook to create a drawing each day in February and post online. After a gap of a few years since my last participation, I chose to sketch locally around the Noel Park Estate in which I live in North London and posted the drawings on Instagram and Flickr.
Noel Park was built as a “Suburban Workman’s Colony” between 1881 and 1929 by the Artizans, Labourers & General Dwellings Company with an initial phase designed by Rowland Plumbe (1838-1919). Construction was halted in 1887 with only half of the estate completed due to financial difficulties caused by the slow uptake of homes because the Great Eastern Railway refused to offer third-class fares from Wood Green Station into central London.
In 1905 revised plans were drawn up by the Company Surveyor, G.J. Earle, to complete the estate in a modified Arts & Crafts style. The estate suffered bomb damage and losses to the development of Wood Green but there are still some 2,200 homes. The estate was bought by the London Borough of Haringey in 1966 and designated as a conservation area in 1982.
I drew using Staedtler pigment liners on cartridge paper, augmented with ink washes from waterbrushes and the occasional spot of green watercolour to match the glazed brick detailing on the estate. Part of the way through I worked out a method of clamping my GoPro to my sketchpad so the latter drawings have timelapse videos of their progress which can be seen in the Instagram posts.
