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Gruesome history

I'm sharing with you one of my drawing board doodles that has a rather grizzly inspiration behind it, the boiled and tar dipped severed heads of traitors once displayed on pikes on the Old London Bridge. When I revisited this drawing this gruesome bit of old London's history came to mind.

Built by 1209, the Old London Bridge spanned the River Thames carrying shops, houses, chapels and a palace, until its demolition after a replacement bridge was built in 1831.

From 1305 the decapitated heads of traitors were displayed on the Drawbridge Gate at the northern end of the Old London Bridge, then after 1577 the display of severed heads was moved to the Great Stone Gate at the Southwark end. The Keeper of the Heads curated this gruesome display of the severed heads of traitors. He would arrange the tar dipped and impaled heads, putting up the new heads and discarding of the old ones.

The picture below, by Claes Van Visscher, shows Old London Bridge in 1616. Above the Southwark gatehouse the heads of executed criminals can be seen mounted on spikes.

A detail taken from Panorama of London by Claes Van Visscher, 1616

On the south is a bridge of stone eight hundred feet in length, of wonderful work; it is supported upon twenty piers of square stone, sixty feet high and thirty broad, joined by arches of about twenty feet diameter. The whole is covered on each side with houses so disposed as to have the appearance of a continued street, not at all of a bridge. Upon this is built a tower, on whose top the heads of such as have been executed for high treason are placed on iron spikes: we counted above thirty.

From John Evelyn's Diary

William Wallace was the first person to have his head displayed on the bridge in 1305, other famous people to have their heads displayed on the pikes included Jack Cade, Thomas More, Bishop John Fisher, and Thomas Cromwell in 1540. The gruesome practice of sticking severed heads on pikes continued until 1660, though there were reports of heads still being on display at the bridge until 1770.

The process of my doodling

I have a stack of drawing boards sat next to my drawing desk, they provide a firm base for my paper when I'm drawing or painting, and it means I can easily move unfinished work. Out of the dozens of boards I have there are a few boards that are my favourites to use, they have been doodled on over the years and so provide a constantly developing source of inspiration for my artwork. Every now and then I skip the paper and draw straight onto the drawing board

Don't lose your head!

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Have a great day and Steem on!