This TikToker is on a mission to draw every single pub in London

One Londoner has taken up a very, very ambitious mission – to draw each and every pub in the capital, by hand. 

Lydia Wood started her pub drawing series during the first lockdown in March 2020. ‘People asked me to draw their locals and shared them on Instagram, and then it kind of blew up,’ Wood said. Deciding to try and draw every single pub in London, she started sharing her journey on TikTok and it blew up even more. Selling prints and private commissions, it’s going so well that this month she’s been able to quit her job teaching art to children to draw pubs full time. Yep, you could say she’s London’s professional pub drawer. 

From elegant Victorian-style tap rooms to intricate, plant-covered taverns, Wood draws each pub using pencil on A5 paper, spending five to six hours on a standard detailed drawing. ‘I’ve not actually counted how many I’ve done,' Wood said. ‘It’s definitely a couple of hundred, but not 1000 yet.’ 

According to a report by the Mayor of London in 2019, the capital is home to 3,540 boozers – meaning that Wood has more than 3000 pubs still to draw, a task that would take her almost ten years to complete if she was to do one drawing a day. ‘I've not got bored yet, but maybe I will by the 2000th one,’ she said. 

Wood has released a 2022 calendar of south east London pubs, where she began the series close to where she lives. ‘My favourite drawing I’ve done so far is Skehans in Nunhead,’ she said. ‘It’s got loads of plants and is right on a corner – it's just a really nice, popular, Irish Pub, that looks great as a drawing.’ 

Follow Lydia’s journey on Instagram here and on TikTok here.

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