Warren Street - Victoria Line, Northern Line

008 148 x 210mm Watercolour and Ink - £50

Station: 008/270
Date: 04/01/2018 
Travelling Companions: Minnie the Dog

Warren Street often used to feel like the edge of the middle for me.

I often used to get off here and walk down to Tottenham Court Road rather than change on the Northern Line. It was perhaps the first instance of me knowing London well enough to walk between points rather than use transport.

I used to love that walk because during my twenties lots of the shops on the walk from Warren Street to Tottenham Court Road were hi-fi and computer shops, but it was the age we now live in, where everything you need is encased in one white box.

It was still the age of the gadget where different combinations of devices with various leads could make all sorts of dreams come true.

I particularly remember the Pro Tape shop. A shop which sold every kind of recording medium you could imagine. A shop never needed again.

It was lust and consumerism for me with my face pressed up against the shop window glass, but it was also something that poked my imagination. What would you do with all that stuff Darren? What songs would you make? What films would you shoot?

Victoria - Victoria, Circle and District Lines

005 148 x 210mm Watercolour and Ink - £50

Station: 005/270
Date: 13/10/2018 
Travelling Companions: Nick Richards and Minnie the Dog

There's a memory I don't want to face as I walk from Pimlico to Victoria, not a bad memory as such, just the start of a thing I should have paid more attention to. Something that slipped me up.

Places do that too, they take you down dark alleys as much as they do open fields.

Actually I do remember an open field associated to this place too. My first national interview with Everett True on some grass near here.

Victoria Station by Nick Richards

With these big stations that double as National Rail Termini as well it's hard to know what the tube station is, in terms of it's presence above ground. I actually choose a side entrance, mainly for Minnie's benefit, though the buses scare her enough.

There's a street photographer here. He's taking photos of old men and young women as they get off the buss. He is being very visible.

He wants to take a picture of me because I'm drawing and have a dog with a black eye patch so obviously it's a photo full of character. But we get into a dance with me turning every time I see his lens rise up.

We're doing a similar thing. There should be a code amongst thieves. Don't take my picture. I'm doing the pictures.