On the pavement outside a London pub, 32-year-old Lydia Wood is sitting in the sunshine at her easel, peering up at the building and sketching with a pencil. Passersby pause to catch glimpses of her work, but what they might not know is that for the artist, this isn't just a nice day out, but part of a years-long project with no apparent end in sight.
The Pub Project Begins
Wood began what she calls 'the pub project' in 2021. Since then, she has drawn intricately detailed sketches of more than 350 pubs: her goal is to draw all 3,500-or-so of London's beloved watering holes – a quest that could take her at least 10 years.
After losing her teaching job during Covid, Wood started sharing her art online, and asked her social media followers if they wanted her to draw their favourite pubs. 'I didn't anticipate the response,' Wood says. 'People genuinely missed the ritual of going to the pub with their friends, and they were worried about the pubs that were struggling.'
Viral Success and Book Publication
Wood's pub drawings subsequently went viral and have now been collected in a book, Locals, which contains a selection of 60 intricate pencil drawings of boozers across London. There are riverside pubs, pubs in alleyways, pubs with cats, and even a whole chapter on pubs called The Coach and Horses. 'I wanted the book to feel like you are suddenly pulled to one end of the city, and then to the other,' Wood says.
For the artist, the work isn't just about documenting the architecture of these buildings, but celebrating the communities within them. Pubs are under threat across Britain – in the capital, around 1,000 pubs have closed in the last 20 years. Yet people still need them.
Pubs Under Threat
'There are pubs trying to attract younger generations with drag shows, book clubs and quiz nights,' Wood explains. 'And I think that will be rewarded in the long term.'
'I get messages all the time saying: Come and draw my pub, or please, can you draw this pub before it gets demolished next year?' Wood says. 'Pubs serve a huge purpose, especially for those communities growing up around them.'
She recently travelled to south Wimbledon to draw the 150-year-old Trafalgar pub after she learned that developers wanted to demolish it to make way for flats. 'Some of my Instagram friends, who also make pub content, were making a video documentary about this pub at risk,' Wood says. 'It's more than 100 years old and a beautiful building.' Locals are campaigning to bring The Trafalgar under community ownership.
The Artistic Process
The drawings take anywhere from six hours to multiple days to complete. 'I could have picked an easier medium to work with to make the process quicker, but I think the pencil is often underestimated as a tool,' she says. 'It's used for the sketch stage, or the beginning or idea. But to use it to make the piece as a whole is an interesting process.'
There's another upside to her method: spending long periods of time outside pubs means she gets to meet lots of new people. She often receives free pints from landlords and ends up chatting with curious locals. Her art then becomes, she says, a vehicle to talk about pubs in crisis but also the history of London and these buildings' place in it.
Discovering the City
Indeed, sketching these historic establishments has led Wood to discover whole new worlds. 'It opened my eyes to the city,' she says. 'From a quiet countryside lane in Richmond to a bustling road in Limehouse, it's really fun to experience the whole spectrum of locations.'
