Urban Sketchers London, Jan 2025 — The National Archives
Urban Sketchers London is one of the sketching groups in London. Every month an event is being held in different parts of the city, so that people who take part in can sketch places on location. This month (Jan 2025) we were in The National Archives, which is close to Kew Garden station.
The National Archives (called “The Archives” as below) is a non-ministerial department which hold over 1,000 years of iconic national documents. As a citizen, they can look for the historical documents from the government, especially when they have the need to do their research.
The Archives has its own building which consists of reading rooms, exhibition spaces, a cafe, a bookshop and a garden. Inside the architecture visitors will not only get a lot of valuable information about the country, but also have a good view. Thus there are many things to sketch both indoors and outdoors.
We usually sketch two during the event: from 11:00am to 1:00pm for the first one, and 1:30pm to 3:30pm for the second. There are also throw downs after each session, and we visit a local pub later on, so that we can have chances to meet other sketchers, and even draw more. You don’t need to fully commit to the whole schedule.
My sketches
My first sketch was a point of view: looking at the exterior of the building from the first floor of the reading room area, with another sketcher opposite to me and me sketching.
My second sketch was really about the reading room with showcase of some books and visitors using computers here for research.
Other spaces
The cafe environment is nice too! And there are hot foods during lunch time. We got steak pie with potato mash and peas, however we forgot taking the photos while I strongly recommend it when you pay a visit here. There are lots of good books about London and the UK.
There are small areas for exhibitions. One of them was about prime minister in the 20th century with their related official documents, which should be interesting enough to understand the history and facts. However, I didn’t have time to deep dive. As of 20th January there will be another exhibition coming soon — MI5: Official Secrets — opening spring 2025 — I am looking forward to it!
If you visit Kew Gardens, maybe you will also consider visiting The National Archives on the same day. But as it is good for sketching, you may end up spending the whole day on it!
Takeaway points: our own archives
Nowadays we can have our own archives, which can be saved into our computer and even on the cloud, besides paper which needs physical space and is difficult and expensive to store (unlike museums which can control temperature and humidity). There are some apps which helps us archive.
Some computer professionals, or those who use computers for decades, may tell us to use open formats like plain text files instead, since companies which develop apps may one day be shut down, and we will eventually lose our own data.
The reality is: before the archive, we already find it difficult to create. Before creating something, we spend a lot of time on choosing notebooks or apps or even formats, which makes us procrastinate to create, and even delay the satisfied experience on it.
From our own situation, we have to question why we need to archive our works and records. Our circumstances are different from the government, which needs to keep all the information open to the public. For us, we need to keep revisiting our past works, in order to remind us of how we get here, how we grow up, and let us keep motivated to do what we love and enjoy!
The National Archives
Website
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Address
The National Archives
Kew, Richmond
TW9 4DU
Opening times
Check here for details. Usually closed on Monday and Sunday as well as bank holidays.
