Landmarks of London

Art

We featured Bridges of London earlier this week. However, the public realm relating to the Thames is more than the river itself and the bridges crossing it. One of London’s defining features, in recent times, as the Thames has cleaned and the spaces beside it have become less-traffic choked, is its riverside frontage. This lovely new illustrated map by Martin Thompson focuses both on the bridges and on the public realm beside the river. Running from Canary Wharf and Greenwich in the east, to Battersea Park in the west, it includes beautiful sketches of the 12 foot-accessible bridges in this section, the iconic buildings alongside, and other little details, such as the lost (that is, now underground) smaller rivers that meet the Thames in this central part of the capital. Martin redraws the river as a straight line of fixed width, with the buildings on either side flaring out and away from it. Most of London’s main tourist attractions, are in fact, not far from the River Thames, so the sketch encapsulates many of London’s most notable landmarks.

The bridge detail is lovely:

Intriguingly, Martin uses brown to show the river, rather than the usual blue. You would think this would result in muddy, murky illustration, however it turns out it works really well, contrasting with the colour and detail of the riverbanks, and the blue of the skies beyond, on either side.

Martin has plans to print to order giclee prints of the work, contact him via his website for further details.

Images courtesy of the artist.

45 comments

    1. Dear All,
      Yes the print is available, it’s 61 x 91 cm, wrapped in tissue and delivered in a tube – £45 inc p&p. If you are still interested you can Paypal me at artymartin@btinternet.com and I’ll get one in the post.
      Best wishes
      Martin

      Reply
  11. Pingback: Map: Landmarks of London – GeoNe.ws

  19. Nice close up of this map, and thanks for highlighting that the river isn’t the usual blue and I agree with you that it does work in this case that the alternative colour was chosen. Kind regards Alastair Majury from Dunblane.

    Reply

  21. The link to Martin Thompson doesn’t work. Do you have another link or contact for him please?
    Thanks

    Reply

    1. Hi Gill

      Thanks for your email, I’m afraid I don’t have any public contact information for the artist and it does indeed look like his website has disappeared – although it is on web.archive.org.

      Reply

      1. Dear All,
        Yes the print is available, it’s 61 x 91 cm, wrapped in tissue and delivered in a tube – £45 inc p&p. If you are still interested you can Paypal me at artymartin@btinternet.com and I’ll get one in the post.
        Best wishes
        Martin

        Reply

    3. Dear All,
      Yes the print is available, it’s 61 x 91 cm, wrapped in tissue and delivered in a tube – £45 inc p&p. If you are still interested you can Paypal me at artymartin@btinternet.com and I’ll get one in the post.
      Best wishes
      Martin

      Reply

  37. Hi,
    Is it possible to buy a print of the Landmarks Of London? The drawing of the river and bridges? Thanks
    Sandra

    Reply

    1. Dear All,
      Yes the print is available, it’s 61 x 91 cm, wrapped in tissue and delivered in a tube – £45 inc p&p. If you are still interested you can Paypal me at artymartin@btinternet.com and I’ll get one in the post.
      Best wishes
      Martin

      Reply

    1. Dear All,
      Yes the print is available, it’s 61 x 91 cm, wrapped in tissue and delivered in a tube – £45 inc p&p. If you are still interested you can Paypal me at artymartin@btinternet.com and I’ll get one in the post.
      Best wishes
      Martin

      Reply

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