William IV, London, 13 August 2019

London Life Drawing run by Adrian and Mark has a new venue. After three years at 83a Geffrye Street in Hoxton – initially only on Tuesday evenings, but more recently Mondays and Tuesdays – they have now relocated slightly westwards to the function room of the William IV pub; still in Hoxton (just about), on Shepherdess Walk.

I arrived for their second-ever Tuesday life drawing session here. The previous week had been a honeymoon period, when no fewer than 37 artists were somehow slotted into the modest space. This being week two, I got about a third of that number but at least everyone had room to be comfortable and could change seats if they wanted.

The sequence of pose lengths remained broadly the same but with a couple of minor variations to keep me attentive: 10-minutes, 2, 2, 2, 5, 7, 10 and 20-minutes up to the break. It was a mild evening and we’d even been able to have windows open. One of the curtains remained closed, however, due to overlooking flats…

We concluded the evening with two 30-minute poses. Whilst windows were now shut, a couple of flies remained in the room. Mostly they avoided me, though inevitably one couldn’t resist skittering across my skin. I could cope with that, but tried not to think of them being drawn (in both senses) into delicate areas.

Irksome insects aside, it felt like a positive start to what will hopefully be a prosperous new era for the group. If attendances stabilise between the opening two weeks’ tallies, they will be doing all right, and deservedly so. Adrian and Mark have been running life drawing groups for many years; in many respects they still set the standard.