drawing
- Museum number
- 1862,0614.693
- Description
-
The garden at Jack Straw's Castle, Hampstead; groups of figures sitting at tables, beneath trees at left, and an arbour at r, a man, woman and child standing near the foreground, part of the house beyond. 1830
Brush drawing in grey wash
- Production date
- 1830
- Dimensions
-
Height: 127 millimetres
-
Width: 221 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Catalogue entry from J.Kierkuc-Bielinski, 'George Scharf', exh. Soane Museum, 2009 (no. 37):
Scharf was not a frequent visitor to the countless inns and taverns that were so much a part of the London streetscape. He occasionally records having made visits to such establishments in his journals. However, here he shows one of the more recognisable landmarks of Hampstead – the tea garden at the back of the renowned coaching inn. It was a favourite haunt of many well-known London figures including the writers Wilkie Collins, William Makepeace Thackeray and Charles Dickens. The latter frequented the inn whilst writing Pickwick Papers. In the foreground a man appears to be lighting a pipe from a gas pipe, although how it would function fixed to a tree is unclear. On the left, patrons of the inn are seated dinning under a pergola. Their food is being brought by staff from a buffet with a hot water boiler in the background. Scharf has annotated the drawing with descriptions of the colour of the inn’s chimney and that of the weather boarding, possibly intended as instructions for a more developed painting of the same subject. The unusual name of the inn refers to the name of one of the leaders of the Peasants Revolt in 1381 who, having set fire to the Priory of the Knights of St John in Clerkenwell, is thought to have hidden in the vicinity from the troops of King Richard II. The present ‘Jack Straw’s Castle’, now no longer an inn, was rebuilt in 1961 following severe war-time damage.
See: P. Jackson, 'George Scharf’s London: Sketches and Watercolours of a Changing City. 1820-50', John Murray: London, 1987.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2009 Mar-Jun, London, Sir John Soane Museum, George Scharf
- Acquisition date
- 1862
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1862,0614.693
