Catte Street runs from Broad Street, past the Radcliffe Camera to Oxford High Street and is arguably one of the most scenic roads in Oxford. Like a lot of Oxford, it’s somewhere I’ve sketched before but, when eating at the Quod restaurant on the High Street a couple of weeks ago, I realised that they have a series of ‘literary’ benches outside. These have a great view of Catte Street. I made a note to go back and try this as a sketching location.

There are a couple of advantages to this-

a) they have the view

b) there is somewhere comfy to sketch and

c) it is more difficult for people to sneak up behind you

I suppose that it is also within very easy distance of a cafe or restaurant if you fancy a cup of tea – or if our lovely English weather chucks it down.

So on two consecutive Sundays I set off to do some sketching. This was meant to just be the one sketch. Here is the view and my first sketch.

This was fine as far as it went but I’d made the classic mistake of running out of space – in this case in the foreground. That’s something that can happen unless you’re careful and measure things out. But sketching doesn’t always need to be careful – sometimes you just start off somewhere and find where that leads you.

Well, I decided to go back and do another sketch and this time maybe to fit it all in. Here’s the result below- also with both sketches side by side on adjacent pages. I think I prefer the second version.

Here’s a scan of that second drawing.

My thanks to the Quod restaurant for providing the seating i.e. the Dorothy Sayer bench (and others).

For a drawing comparison, here is a view from the other end of Catte Street from a post earlier in the year .

Here is a link to this post

Sketching on the corner of Catte street and Broad Street, Oxford