She's on a mission to draw every pub in London — even if it takes her decades

As It Happens6:29She's on a mission to draw every pub in London — even if it takes her decades

If you've walked the streets of London in the last five years, you may have spotted Lydia Wood, standing on the sidewalk at her easel, sketching the exterior of a local pub.

The British artist is on a mission to draw every single pub in the city, from world-famous hotspots to the lesser-known neighbourhood staples. 

At a pace of two drawings per week, with upwards of 3,000 pubs in the city, it's a project she suspects will take her at least 10 years — and maybe as many as 20 — to complete.

"I think I've done over 300 now," Wood told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "I try not to count too often because then I realize how long I've got to go."

Levelling the playing field 

London is famous for its wide array of pubs, and there's no shortage of art celebrating them. But Wood says what's out there doesn't quite capture the true diversity of the city's pub culture. 

"I feel like I had seen a lot of artworks of the same pubs," Wood said. "You know, really famous pubs, pubs that were in history books, or interesting architecturally."

Wood is more interested in the neighbourhood "locals" — places where neighbours get together to drink, eat, watch sports and celebrate life's milestones.

"I was also really intrigued by the pubs that ... don't have social media and have a loyal crowd — backstreet boozers that maybe not many people know about," she said.

"Not your prettiest pubs, maybe a grumpy landlord — like all of these sort of small details that make up a pub that are not necessarily shouted about, and those personal connections of that particular community."

She remembers one of the first pubs she ever drew, called King Charles I near King's Cross Road.

"I kind of just set up [and] didn't tell anyone I was there. I kind of wanted to do my drawing, maybe pop in for a drink and then go," she said. "But the locals immediately clocked me."

Before she knew it, the pub's workers were bringing her glasses of red wine, on the house, and patrons were ordering prints of her sketch before she'd even finished drawing it.

"There was this really amazing, like, welcoming atmosphere, and they were just super proud of their pub," she said. "It's a brilliant pub, as well, and now my print is up in there, which is, like, the cherry on top."

A full-time job

In fact, Londoners are so proud of their locals that Wood has managed to make a living off this project. 

She's built a huge fanbase on social media, which she's leveraged into brand partnerships and a potential book deal. She also sells prints of her drawings online for  £40 ($74 Cdn), or £380 ($700 Cdn) for an original. She also makes pub calendars.

"It's my full-time job," she said. "It has been for a couple of years now and each year sort of keeps growing."

If all goes well, she'll have many years of pub sketching ahead of her. 

Tallies very, and pubs are opening and closing all the time, but an audit by the municipal government last year found there were 3,535 pubs in London in 2023, a number the city says is largely unchanged since 2018

Wood is not taking a particularly meticulous approach, she said. She doesn't have a tidy spreadsheet to track her work. She's not tacking them alphabetically, or moving neighbourhood to neighbourhood. 

Instead, she follows her whims, going to pubs that her friends and fans recommend, or that pique her interest. And she's covering the Greater London Area.

"That's right out to the outskirts," she said. "Places that almost feel like the countryside and not your kind of traditional Soho kind of central London pubs."

As she nears the end, she says, she'll "start looking at a list and seeing what I've missed."

And when she's finally done?

"It will be, obviously, an amazing feeling. I feel like my posture will be ruined," she said. "But, yeah, I think the first thing after is we celebrate in a pub."