Gallery 2025
In fifteen years of community publishing it has been a privilege for Cray 150 to showcase in our books the talent of local artists, illustrators and photographers. Let's look back at a small sample of them. We start with Steve Cotterell's photo looking northwards from Hays Wharf to capture the City of London skyline shortly after the Gherkin became an ionic landmark twenty years ago.
In fifteen years of community publishing it has been a privilege for Cray 150 to showcase in our books the talent of local artists, illustrators and photographers. Let's look back at a small sample of them. We start with Steve Cotterell's photo looking northwards from Hays Wharf to capture the City of London skyline shortly after the Gherkin became an ionic landmark twenty years ago.
Photographed from Cannon Street railway station looking eastwards in 2023 we see the Gherkin dwarfed by taller skyscrapers. The veteran author and journalist Hunter Davies has described the present-day City of London as 'a playground for mad architects'. Do you agree?
Jerry Dowlen offers illustrated Talks about the City of London that are very popular with local interest social groups. E-mail [email protected] for details. Also there is a new second edition of Jerry's book The City of London: Wandering and Wondering (2024)
Jerry Dowlen offers illustrated Talks about the City of London that are very popular with local interest social groups. E-mail [email protected] for details. Also there is a new second edition of Jerry's book The City of London: Wandering and Wondering (2024)
This very striking pen and ink illustration was reprinted in our Meandering Through the Millstream book (2015).
The artist was showing from 1980 the churches of St Paulinus in St Paul's Cray and St Mary's in St Mary Cray. The illustration appeared on the front cover of Millstream the monthly magazine that served the two churches from 1951 till 2015.
Copies of Meandering Through the Millstream [Price £2] can still be obtained from St Mary's church or by e-mail [email protected]
The artist was showing from 1980 the churches of St Paulinus in St Paul's Cray and St Mary's in St Mary Cray. The illustration appeared on the front cover of Millstream the monthly magazine that served the two churches from 1951 till 2015.
Copies of Meandering Through the Millstream [Price £2] can still be obtained from St Mary's church or by e-mail [email protected]
Pen and ink was the choice too of artist and poet Les Cheeseman when he illustrated the village of Downe in Kent for our book A Cray Compendium (2014). This was the first of our community publications showcasing the art and writing of multiple local contributors. Downe is the home of the famous naturalist Charles Darwin whose fascinating story with local connections is recounted in our Sign Here! book (second edition, 2024).
The artist Joan Smith gave us a host of her lovely illustrations when we published a series of anthologies of artwork and poems by members and friends of the Croft Poetry Club. This summer scene was printed in the Marvellous Dreams anthology (2018).
The artwork of Stephen Chaplin (Born 1934 in Orpington) is so brilliant that we want everyone to know where they can find and enjoy seeing it. As explained in our Curiosities of Orpington local history book (2023) if you Google the name Stephen Chaplin you'll find his page with more than a hundred of his colour drawings on the Art UK website. Many of the drawings are local scenes in and around Orpington such as the 1930s houses on the A224 Orpington by-pass.
In our Curiosities of Orpington local history book (2023) we were delighted also to print this super photograph by Roger Harris from the day of Saturday 13th May 1967 when a publicity stunt by KJ Motors saw a parade through Petts Wood and Orpington of a Batmobile with a Batman lookalike on board. Based on the very popular American series of that time the parade ended at the KJ Motors garage on the A224 Orpington by-pass near Goddington Lane. Repeats of the original 1960s Batman episodes are being shown currently on the Talking Pictures freeview television channel,