Pubs are the beating heart of the city, no one can deny that. Whether it’s catching the rays in a pub garden, sitting by the river for a quick bev, meeting the squad to catch a game or even watching a comedy show, London’s pubs really do have every occasion covered.
One Londoner is capturing London’s love of pub culture through her illustrations.
A mission to draw every pub in London
Lydia Wood, the artist behind the drawings, has made it her mission to sketch every single pub in London. The project started in 2021, in a post-COVID world where connection and doing everyday things were all anyone wanted to do at that point, which sparked the idea for Lydia.
According to data from the Greater London Authority, there are 3,620 pub and bar businesses in London, and Lydia estimates that the project could take close to 30 years to complete. Each drawing takes a few hours to finish.
For Lydia, the project is personal, and in interviews she has said that the pub project is a documentation of pubs throughout her life.
You can follow Lydia’s project on her official pub drawing Instagram page lydiawooddrawings, which has amassed 86.1k followers, which shows just how much the project has captured the hearts of Londoners.
If you want to get your hands on any of Lydia’s drawings, you can visit her website, where you can purchase the original drawing or an A5 or A4 print, with prices starting from £25.
Lydia has also released a book called Locals, a collection of over sixty of her favourite pubs and their stories. The title reflects the fact that pubs are spaces where tourists mix with regulars, landlords become your pals, and you never know where conversations will go- a place where everyone can become a local.
