She is the borough’s most prolific artist, documenting the changes that buildings undergo as they mutate from betting shops to artisan cafes, pubs to (groan) apartment blocks. And of course the many unchanging sights of the area, from pastel-hued Kelly Street to the inclines of Parliament Hill (main pic, above).
We first asked the enigmatic chronicler to write about her project back in May 2014. She said at the time it was her husband who suggested “that I paint all the Grade II-listed buildings in Kentish Town, and I jumped at the idea. My career had always involved working with words, but I enjoyed painting as a hobby, and loved the thought of combining this with my interest in architecture. The English Heritage website lists over 100 protected buildings in NW5, so I knew I was going to be kept very busy.”
From then on she travelled around Kentish Town during the day, either by bike or on foot, dog in tow, photographing the listed buildings and monuments. In the evenings, she painted them using the Paper app on her iPad.
In the last ten years she has rattled off pubs, churches, shops, numerous private houses, railings, gates and other relics of the past, such as the old cherry-red telephone boxes in Laurier Road and Prince of Wales Road (designed by Gilbert Scott) and the green, cast-iron Victorian sewer vent pipe at Gospel Oak.
“I like the idea of being anonymous so that the focus of the project remained on the buildings,” she says. And happily, commissions flood in from people who have seen the paintings on social media. “What started as a hobby has become a bit of an obsession. I love these buildings. They’ll be here for a long time after we’re all gone. So I want to honour them while I’m still around.”
Today she picks her personal Top 5 from a decade of work:
Secret Artist NW5’s Top 5
1. The Owl Bookshop
“Need I say more? One of the best local bookshops in London and one of Kentish Town’s most beloved retailers. (Full disclosure: they sell my greetings cards.)”
2. Parliament Hill
“I love seeing this view of London when I walk the dog. How lucky we north Londoners are to have the vast public space that is Hampstead Heath.”
3. The Postmen’s Sorting Office, Leighton Road
“One of my first paintings (2014), using my forefinger as a stylus. The top windows of this 1904 building are modelled on windows in the Baths of Diocletian (c. 300AD) in Rome.”
4. Fitzroy Terrace, Highgate Road
“This terrace is just past Never For Ever on the way to Parliament Hill from Kentish Town. Domestic Georgian architecture at its best. I love the first-floor windows.”
5. Lockdown 2020 in Kentish Town
“It was eerie: no cars and long queues outside shops. This is a more cheerful picture than some that I painted – warm spring day, queueing to buy ice cream. There’s hope there, somehow.”
DonatePeruse these and hundreds more works by @secretartistnw5 on her website here.
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