Saturday September 6th 2025
Led by Helen Hayhoe and Sam Mills
Chiswick Pier Trust are hosting Urban Sketchers London at The Pier House as part of the 2025 Totally Thames Festival organised by Thames Festival Trust. This gem of an area features river, architecture, boats and bridges.
Doors to The Pier House will be open from 10.30am until 3.30pm, providing access to lavatories and a place to sit, sketch, rest and chat during the sketchwalk.
Key times and meeting points for the day
11 am: Meet at The Pier House, Corney Reach Way, Chiswick, London W4 2UG. What3words
location:///thanks.noisy.oasis
1 pm: Meet again at The Pier House for a group photo and ‘throwdown’. If it’s raining the throwdown will be inside The Pier House.
3.30 pm: Meet at the same place for the final throwdown.
For those who would like to stay on, we will head to The Black Lion pub (2 South Black Lion Lane W6 9TJ)
Opportunities to draw
There are varied opportunities for sketching. Chiswick Pier is the location of several interesting houseboats. The view up and down the river is broad and breath-taking. A five-minute walk takes you to Dukes Meadows, a bio-diverse mix of riverside towpath, woodland and open meadow. At its heart is The Dukes Meadows Bandstand which provides both an interesting subject and shelter if needed. The whole area has terracing, providing convenient seating. Architecturally here is plenty of opportunity to sketch historic local buildings, Barnes Bridge and St Nicholas Church as well as contemporary riverside developments.
Practical Information
Getting there
Pier House is located in Corney Reach Way, off Edensor Road. https://chiswickpier.org.uk/contact-us/
Bus: E3 bus, destination “Chiswick Edensor Road”, which runs past Turnham Green Tube (District Line) and Chiswick Mainline Station. This terminates by the roundabout in Edensor Road. The 190 bus from Hammersmith(Piccadilly and District Lines) to Richmond (District Line and Richmond Mainline) passes the end of Edensor Road on the A316 (Burlington Lane).
Limited parking in spaces labelled CPT is available, alternative public parking is available in Pumping Station Road (this is pay-and-display 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and free at evenings and weekends). Please do not park immediately behind the Pier House, as this is for the exclusive use of the residential boat owners.
This map shows the main locations for the day.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1lONFYdeEuIVAm2n44nmprV_j0L2WIr4&usp=sharing
Toilets
Pier House and the venues below all have toilets.
Refreshments
Refreshments will be on sale from Forge & Orchard coffee bike just outside. On Promenade Approach towards Dukes Meadows there is a little outside café at Splash Oasis, and the pubs and cafes of Barnes are over the railway bridge. Edensor Road, about 10 mins walk away, towards Chiswick House has a Thai café and Chiswick House and gardens has a nice café too.
Links and tags
It’s fine to just turn up on the day, but if you’d like to register for updates to this event and receive free
support materials from the Chiswick Pier Trust for those new to Urban Sketching you can book your free tickets here:
https://buytickets.at/chiswickpiertrust/1717715
Please tag us on @ThamesFestTrust #TotallyThames #ThamesFestivalTrust
@ChiswickPier (X) @Chiswick_Pier (Insta) Chiswick Pier Trust (Facebook)
urbansketcherslondon #usklondon
