March 2023 Archives

On an early mid-September morning, I visited the ruins of the 12th-century Sherborne Old Castle in Dorset. The old castle was replaced with a newer one in the 16th century, simply called Sherborne Castle, and it functioned as a mansion home. Sherborne Old Castle survived two battles during the Civil War, and it was leased by Sir Walter Raleigh when he was imprisioned in the Tower of London for marrying one of Elizabeth I's maids without the queen's permission. Visitors can enjoy exploring the ruins, spotting wildlife, and having picnics in the grounds. During July and August, visitors may see "Lady Betty's Pinks" flowers, named after Raleigh's wife, Elizabeth.

English Heritage allows visitors to explore the ruins of the old castle, and it is typically open during the summer months on weekends.

In 1905, a large pageant was held at the ruins of the castle, and this started a pageant craze.

The castle was built on the hill on a site of a 7th century cemetery. 

The north barbican gate leaves the castle hill to the jetty, which was accessed across a lake. By the 15th century, the land was boggy, but it is pasture land today.

Stairs from the barbican lead to the dry moat today, and I had a walk around the moat.

The north-east gatehouse was the access that tradesmen and women used to enter the castle grounds. Their buildings, stables, and workshops would have been outside the gate.

The kitchen buildings are now lost, but they would have been in the foreground in the below photograph. The well would have been inside the kitchen courtyards.

Sir Walter Raleigh was in the process of modifying the great tower of the castle, but he then focused his energy on modifying the new hunting lodge (now Sherborne Castle).

Have you been to Sherborne Castle? Tell me what you thought.

The remains of a 16th century mansion are encased inside the enclosure of an earlier castle that dates from the 12th century. The original castle was timber and earth and rebuilt by the second owners (the Corbet family), and part of the keep and tower can be seen today. The mansion and castle were damaged in the civil war but repaired, and it was completely abandoned by the 18th century. The Corbet family still own the castle, and the town is named after them. English Heritage manage the castle.

The mansion was designed from examples in Europe, and you can see the fine detail in the remaining stonework as to how luxurious this place would have been. It would have had a formal garden as well, which is now a field next to the castle. A bed made for the house in the 1500s is now in the Shrewsbury Museum.

I explored the mansion first. The ruins of the building can be entered through existing doorways at the front.

You can really get a sense of how grand the home would have looked with the decorative carvings. It's a pity that it was abandoned.

You can view outside of the missing walls to the older castle.

One area contains a basement level, but there's not much down here except a little room.

More carvings are located at the corner of the building when I walked around it to the castle.

You can see the full castle grounds here.

On the other side is the ruins of the gatehouse with the family's emblem above the doorway, similar to the one seen on the mansion.

The castle grounds would have had the working buildings, such as the kitcen.

I was able to have a really good look around the site between fifteen and thirty minutes. There is a little bit of parking at front, but the area is popular with visitors and dog-walkers, so it's not a very quiet place.

Street artist Glor, who is based in London but was born in Brazil, has been creating artwork on London's streets for the past few years now. The work centres on a character that the artist has created, and this character is showing with a missing eye, which is usually incorporated into the piece, and a one foot with a boot. 

Street artist 7th Pencil is part of WOM Collective. She studied art and is based in Devon but wishes to create street art all over the world. Her artwork shows elements of graphic imagery and pattern and uses bright colours. I captured the pieces below in east London and in Penge.

London-based street artist Woskerski is known for eye-catching murals across London. Bright colours and a sense of surrealism or expression can be seen in his artwork. I discovered seveal murals by Woskerski in Penge in the past eighteen months. Finding a new mural by Woskerski is always a joy because they evoke a sense of playfulness.

A female

Giant strawberry

A plant and a pencil

Egg

Lego head

Daisies

Additional work by Woskerski that is featured on this blog:

Recent Street Art by Woskerski in East London
Woskerski Street Art in East London
Woskerski Paints Toynbee Street for London Mural Festival
Most Recent Street Art by Woskerski
Street Art: Woskerski
Recent Spring 2018 Woskerski Street Art

Today's post covers the street art of Mr. Cenz, a street artist who has been painting in London for many years. His work primarily features portraits of girls in a grafitti-style with futuristic and fantasy elements. Bright colours and geometric designs are incorporated into his artwork. I've captured a few murals by the artist below.

The first is a large-scale piece near Tesco in Crystal Palace. It's on a large wall and easy to see, and it's a striking mural.

Another one in Penge features a female looking upwards. This would have been a tricky mural to paint because the wall of bricks is very jagged and porous, but the art looks fantastic.

In Camden, a mural of a purple-faced girl is painted onto the side of a pub.

Whitecross Street also has a large-scale mural of a female and incorporates the design of the building into the image.

The last mural is located off Hanbury Street and features a pensive-looking girl.

More street art by Mr. Cenz on this blog can be seen at the below links:

Mr. Cenz - Frost Fair
Mr. Cenz Recent Street Art in London
Mr. Cenz Paints Hanbury Street Wall
Mr. Cenz Paints "Connectivity Matters" Wall
Recent Street Art By Mr. Cenz in Winter 2018
Mr. Cenz Paints Tribute to Usain Bolt
Mr. Cenz Refreshes Fashion Street Mural
Mr. Cenz Paints Hanbury Street
New Street Art by Mr. Cenz
Street Art: Mr. Cenz

Over the past few years, Fat Cap Sprays has been busy creating neon cartoon characters around London. Fat Cap Sprays is based in London, and he creates the neon artwork using different layers of spray paint to give a "glow" effect. The artist is inspired by cartoons and video game characters, and these characters often evoke a sense of positivity in the eyes of the viewer for playing video games or watching television with the characters in them. I captured several of the artist's work that was painted in Penge over the past couple of years. 

Mario and Sonic battle it out for Fat Cap Sprays and London Calling Blog

Jerry from "Tom and Jerry"

A cartoon cat

"The Flintstones"

"Top Cat"

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"

"Woody Woodpecker"

"Tails"

Previous work by Fat Cap Sprays on this blog is below:

Street Art: Fat Cap Sprays 

Street artist collective Gums and Tongue paint many murals across east London. Their style is graffiti culture, and they have their own style of character, but I would consider it to be more of a grafitti-style. I captured a lot of their work in the past several years. The below are street art that I have captured in the past couple of years.

More artwork by Gums and Tongue on this blog:

Halloween Street Art
Fleur De List Street Art Jam

Last June, I visited Badgers Hall in Chipping Campden (the Cotswolds) for afternoon tea as a birthday treat. I love afternoon tea, so it's always a treat to be able to visit. I had previously visited this tea room several years ago when I was in the Cotswolds: Afternoon tea in Chipping Camden. Now, a little bit of history about Chipping Campden. 

Chipping Campden is famous for its old market hall building, which dates from the early 1600s. This covered building would have housed the sellers and their wares. Chipping Campden was a wealthy Cotswolds town, and its main trade was the wool industry.

Overall, Chipping Campden is a lovely village. 

Afternoon tea at Badgers Hall includes toasted teacakes, cheesey crumpets, and scones. The food was very good.

Overall, I had a pleasant visit and a lovely afternoon tea.

Street artist Fanakapan is one street artist that I have been following over a decade now. His current style of work features chrome balloons or objects, known as "balloon graff". In the summer of June 2021, he painted "Pay Rise for the NHS" in Hoxton to highlight all of the sacrifices and hard work that the NHS did during the pandemic. The rainbow in the artwork became a symbol of the pandemic for the NHS.

In addition to the NHS mural in Hoxton, I discoverd more over the past couple of years. They all appeared on the same wall at Star Yard, Brick Lane. The mushroom and smiley face below were painted in June of 2022.

The baring-teeth smiley was painted in May of 2022.

More artwork featuring Fanakapan can be discovered on my blog here:

Voyder and Fanakapan Street Art in Camden
Fanakapan and Nerone Collaborate on "Neighbourhood Watch" in Penge
Fanakapan "No Words" Mural, Hoxton Square
Fanakapan Street Art Around East London
Fanakapan "Up Yours" Mural on Heneage Street
Fanakapan "BITER" Street Art on Pedley Street
Fanakapan Street Art Smiling Balloons
Fanakapan Paints "Hah" Laughing Gas on Pedley Street
Halloween Street Art by Fanakapan
Fanakapan Street Art on Mornington Crescent and Star Yard
Fanakapan Paints PacMan Pizza on Brick Lane and Other Street Art
Fanakapan Star Yard MagnaDonuts Mural
"Follow the Leader" by Fanakapan
Peace for Manchester
Fanakapan Paints Shoreditch Clowns
Chrome Balloon Dog in Star Yard
Fanakapan Paints "Power Tools" on Village Underground Wall
Fanakapan Paints "Drunk Glass Elephants"
Fanakapan, Horror Crew, & Jerry Rugg
Louis Masai and Fanakapan: "Freedom?"
New Chrome Street Art Mask by Fanakapan
Balloon Animal Street Art
Cranio & Fanakapan
Fanakapan and Horror Crew
Camden Street Art Self-Guided Trail
Halloween Street Art (2018 and 2019)
Cranio Returns to London in 2020 and Paints Brick Lane

Irish-based street artist Eoin has painted in London a few times, and I had not featured his work much on the blog despite capturing several pieces over the years. His work primarily features enter-twined rope or hair-like structures. Although I have captured the artist's work via street artist, he is also a sculptor.

Previous work by Eoin on this blog is pictured below:

Fleur De Lis Street: Street Art Jam
New Street Art by Eoin and Others

I have previously covered the artwork by street artist Envol (Steven Jurado) on this blog. Envol Studio's style is graphic design featuring minimal styling and geometric forms, often simplistic in style. Normally, the colours used are monotone (black and white) with an accent colour. I've followed the artist's work over the past decade in east London. The below was painted over the past two or three years. 

The above was painted over Halloween last year.

The final work in this post by Envol was photographed in Penge.

For more work by Envol on my blog, see the following:

Street Art: Envol
Bristol Upfest 2018
Street Art Round-Up (Lolie Darko, Envol, Fanakapan, and More)
Meeting of the Styles 2017
The Sad End of the Nomadic Community Gardens

Today's post features street art captured in Penge in the autumn of 2021 when I went on a street art walk that was being hosted by LondonCallingBlog, and as we ran out of time, I went to see some of the pieces the following weekend. Irony's work is realistic, and it typically depicts animals or female portraits. This artwork was painted in Penge at the end of 2019 and in spring of 2021.

This cat's face painted on a shutter at Parish Lane in Penge was completed in the spring of 2021.

This portrait of a girl was also painted in the spring of 2021 in a residential area of Penge.

The last artwork featured in this post is of a dog, painted on a building behind a wall. The dog appears to peer over the top of the wall. 

In front of the dog is artwork by FIYA101, which is in black and white with geometric patterns.

Choots is a street artist known for an illustrative playful style featuring playful characters and random doodles. The artist is based in London and has worked on artwork for several large brands. Ten Hun, which is short for Ten Hundred, is a street artist from Michigan in the United States. He has been inspired by comics, folklore, anime, and he has worked for multiple large brands on his imaginative characters. Both street artists collaborated on a mural off Brick Lane. The blue-skinned character that appears to be falling into monotone doodles was created by Ten Hun. The doodles were created by Choots.

I also captured another mural by Choots.

For more artwork by Choots on this blow, see:

Camden Street Art Walking Guide

Today, I am featuring street art by Nerone, an artist from France who uses typefae with floral and neon imagery to create eye-catching sreet art. Nerone, inspired by the hip-hop culture since he was 11-years-old, focuses on graphic design. One of the artist's newest murals in London was painted in late summer last year; it is on Zetland House, and it reads: Shine your Light".

Spanish street artist Elno paints portraits using bright colours, and she has painted across the U.K. I discovered some of her work in Penge a couple of years ago, and she has been painting in London from 2015. One of the large-scale murals is on Southey Street in Penge. It features a feminine character with blue skin. The other is located on Maple Street on a shutter.

The below was a collaboration between Lours and Elno, and it is titled "Empowering", and it shows two feminie characters. The artists are part of WOM Collective, and it was painted in 2021.

The last mural in Penge is located on Maple Street and is partially-obscured. It ws painted in 2020.

More of Elno's work on this blog:

Elno Paints at Re:Claim in Southampton
Meeting of the Styles 2018
Street Art Round-Up January 2018
Early 2016 Street Art Round-Up
Leake Street Tunnels 2016
Street Art Round-Up 2015-2016
All-Female Paint Jam in Blackall Street

Street artist Zabou first painted in Penge in November of 2020, and I saw this mural a year after it was painted. The work is inspired from watching people become consumed by social media and always being hooked into it. Zabou has been painting murals in London over the past several years now, and her work is best described as realistic. She often paints portraits.

Other artwork by Zabou on this blog can be seen in the below posts:

Zabou - Gordon Gibbens in Penge
Zabou Refreshes Brick Lane and Salvador Dali Artwork
Zabou Paints "Good Vibes"
Zabou Paints "Sisters" on Kingsland Road
Zabou Paints Audrey Hepburn on Brick Lane
Zabou: "Jack the Ripper" Street Art
Zabou: 'Racism is a Virus' Street Art
New Murals by Zabou in East London (Clockwork Orange, Sherlock, David Bowie)
Zabou "The Shining" and Refresh of Salvador Dali in Spitalfields
Villana and Zabou Collaborate on Amy Winehouse Street Art
Zabou paints Sid Vicious from 'The Sex Pistols'
Zabou Paints Freda #2 at Broadway Market
Zabou Paints Salvador Dali on Commercial Road
Koeone and Zabou Collaborate
"Keep Out!" Street Art by Zabou
Zabou's 'Cabinet of Curiosity' Street Art
Leake Street Tunnels Street Art, Spring 2016
Recent Street Art by Zabou
Street Art: Zabou

JimmyC is a high profile street artist who has created several popular murals in London, including Usain Bolt during the 2012 Olympics and David Bowie in Brixton, which became a place of tribute after Bowie's death. His work is created with dots or daubs of different colours of paint to build up an image. One of the newest artworks from the South African street artist is "spring", which is a large-scale mural that covers the entire back of a building on Whitecross Street. It features trees and flowers in blossom with a little girl and a pond. The mural was painted in the summer of 2021.

I happened to visit during the tree bloosom in the spring this year, which made a good photograph. Unfortunately, there was a taxi parked there.

I also wanted to add a photograph of a woman painted in the summer of 2020 in Hackney as part of London Mural Fest. The mural is located on Mare Street, and it features Theresa. Theresa was born in Hackney to parents from Sierra Leone, and she often visits Ridley Road market. I captured the photograph in the spring of 2021, but it had been tagged over.

More artwork by JimmyC that I have posted about in this blog are:

JimmyC Paints "Vaccine Nation" Street Art in Shoreditch
London Cityscape at Blackfriars by JimmyC
JimmyC Swan Street Art by Borough Market
JimmyC Updates South Bank Shakespeare Mural
JimmyC Paints Wall of Hearts to Honour Victims of Borough Market Attack
JimmyC Paints "Royal Wedding" Mural for St. Christopher's Place
Mick's Hands
'Open the Mind'
JimmyC Redchurch Street Heart
JimmyC Paints Shakespeare on South Bank
Street Artist JimmyC Paints Caledonian Road
RIP David Bowie & An Afternoon in Brixton
New Mural in Ever-Changing Shoreditch by JimmyC
New 'Spring Offering' Mural by Bailon and Sliks (JimmyC, Zadok Sonar Uno)
New JimmyC Mural on Joe's Kid (Cafe), Fashion Street
JimmyC Street Art - New Inn Yard, Brick Lane, Hackney Road
New Street Art by JimmyC
Street Art: JimmyC

Over the past several months, I had been noticing large placements of golden eggs dotted around east London from Brick Lane to Shoreditch underground station. I did not know why golden eggs were appearing across east London. I also could not find who was responsible for the earlier golden eggs, but later on, I discovered the answer to that question. Paul Couve has placed up clusters of these golden eggs, showong his work with musicians and talent. 

I captured a few of the golden eggs artwork but not everything.