Oxford Circus - Victoria Line, Bakerloo Line, Central Line

007 148 x 210mm Watercolour and Ink - £50

Station: 007/270
Date: 04/01/2018 
Travelling Companions: Minnie the Dog

Oxford Circus marks the first station I feel reluctant to walk through and draw. It's busy makes nervous. I guess the point of this project was for it to take me to the networks extremities, but I also understand that I will have to keep diving through the hustle and bustle.

I know Oxford Circus isn't really the centre of London but it always feels like the centre to me, everything seems to be drawn here. Oxford Circus was always my gateway to London when I lived in Walthamstow, down the Victoria line and then out here in all the chaos.

It's also the first place in London I knew alongside Tottenham Court Road. Getting on the train here from Essex and just coming here because I just thought it was what you were supposed to do. Just walking around with a bag of comic and eating in Burger King.

Oxford Circus 1969

No-one stays here and that's what weird about sitting here and drawing for half an hour. Everybody is rushing past and its actually quite hard to see the entrances to the tube station. Something you might start to notice in my pictures is that there are no people. I used to draw people, and then I stopped. Consequently everything starts to look like Day of the Triffids or 28 Days Later.

Which I'm fine with. So I crouch down with Minnie and try to wipe out all of the people.

I made Oxford Circus an Oasis of calm.