St John’s Square (west side), Burslem

Terry Hunt of Jollie’s Arts and Crafts shop in Newcastle-under-Lyme used to run the Duke  William. He told me that the inside bears little resemblance to the outside as it was built around the bones of an older building. There is a little about its history on the Duke William website.

I’ve added a rogue drawing here of Terry standing outside his shop on Liverpool Road from a couple of years ago. My drawings have changed quite a bit since then in a number of ways. I use better quality watercolour paper, much heavier, cold pressed for texture and creamy in colour. I use a mapping pen (instead of a Rotring technical pen) for a variety in line width and permanent, light fast inks and egg tempera and natural pigments for colour washes.

Back to recording St John’s Square and the rest of the buildings on this drawing.

Matt and Lee at work in New Era Barber shop. Note the date on the gable: 1884.

To see the drawing as a whole, please visit my website Drawing the Street. Limited edition prints (40) are available to buy from Barewall Art Gallery, Market Place, Burslem.

Thanks for reading.

Ronnie