‘It opened my eyes to the city’: photographer captures every pub in London | Art

OhOn the sidewalk outside a London shopping mall, 32-year-old Lydia Wood sits in the sun on her doorstep, looking around the building and drawing with a pencil. Passers-by pause to look at his work, but what they don’t know is that for the artist, this is not just a good day, but part of a long-term work without an end in sight.

Wood began what he calls the “Pub Project” in 2021. Since then, he has photographed in detail more than 350 pubs: his goal is to photograph London’s favorite watering holes – 3,500 – a quest that will take him 10 years.

After losing her teaching job due to Covid, Wood began sharing her art online, and asked her social media followers if they wanted her to draw their favorite books. “I didn’t expect the response,” Wood said. “People really missed out on going to museums with friends, and they were worried about pubs that were struggling”.

Wood’s drawings have been successful and have been collected in a book, Locals, which contains 60 pencil drawings of boozers in London. There are riverside pubs, street pubs, pubs with cats, and a whole theme at The Coach and Horses. “I wanted the book to feel like you’re suddenly being pulled to one end of the city, and then to the other,” says Wood.

For an artist, the task is not only to document these buildings, but to celebrate the communities within them. Pubs are under threat in Britain – in the capital, almost 1,000 pubs have closed in the last 20 years. However, people still want them.

There are shops that try to attract the younger generation with book fairs, book clubs and quiz nights.” “And I think that will be harvested over time,” Wood explains.

He recently traveled to south Wimbledon to photograph the 150-year-old Trafalgar shopping center after hearing that developers wanted to tear it down to make way for apartments. “Some of my Instagram friends, who are also documentarians, were making a video about a pub in danger,” says Wood. It is more than 100 years old and is a very beautiful building. Local people are campaigning to bring The Trafalgar into community ownership.

The drawings take anywhere from six hours to several days to complete. “I could have chosen a simpler way of working to make the process faster, but I think the pencil is often seen as a tool,” he says. “It’s used as a sketch, or a start or an idea. But using it to create a whole piece is a fun way.”

There’s another good thing about his approach: spending so much time outside the mall means he meets a lot of new people. They often receive free pints from the landlords and end up chatting with curious locals. His art becomes, he says, a vehicle for talking about pubs in trouble and the history of London and the places where these buildings are located.

Indeed, painting these famous places has led Wood to discover new worlds. He said: “It opened my eyes to the city.”

From the quiet countryside of Richmond to the busy streets of Limehouse, it’s fun to see the different places. “

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Train & Shovell, Charing Cross (large image)
This pub has two buildings: The Train on one side, and The Shovell on the other. Originally two terraced buildings, the pubs are connected via an underground passage. “The painting is about 90% and it’s only 10%,” says Wood.

The Faltering Fullback, Finsbury Park
At the crossroads of two roads, The Faltering Fullback of north London sits proudly green. The beer garden feels like a tree house, with a few seats. “While I was painting outside, a group of students and their teachers came to see me painting the library,” says Wood. “What I love about this job is the people I meet,” says Wood.

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Blythe Hill Tavern, Catford
Lydia Wood’s artistic career began close to home. “This is my favorite place because it’s my home, and I have a lot of memories here,” he says. “It’s the first pub I ever photographed.”

The Blackfriar, Blackfriars
Built on the site of an old Dominican friary, the exterior of the Blackfriar shop is shown here on a 42 by 52.9cm canvas – Wood’s largest finished painting. “Usually my painting takes five or six hours.

The Cockpit, Blackfriars
Wood, pictured with his Cockpit portrait. The pub was once a veritable cock-hole in the 19th century, with William Shakespeare said to have bought a house near the site in the 1600s. Every little detail of this place is unique in its architecture, the glass walls, the exposed bricks and the structures make it very unique.”

The Rifleman, Twickenham
This backyard pub is named after World War I gunner – and local – Frank Edwards, also known as the Loos Footballer. The pub is now under threat of closure and locals are fighting to keep it going. “I got caught in the rain and was happy to finish painting inside with an open fire and a pint.” Loyal locals would also buy me drinks while I worked,” says Wood.

Locals: A Guide to London’s Pubs in Lydia Wood is published by Hodder and Stoughton.