the kiosk

 

This is a model of a kiosk which I made a while ago. Usually it's on a shelf above my desk but the finial has been leaning for ages so I've brought it home to mend. It's all made up really, and the inside is just how it worked out. The posters are images that I cut from magazines and washed. The lead roof isn't lead but I made rolls and painted it to look like lead.

I thought that I might try to make a model of a London Cabbies' shelter. I could go on trips with a purpose. Perhaps I'd have something to eat, outside not in. I could take lots of photos, maybe make some sketches with some dimensions noted, and afterwards I would work up some coloured measured drawings. I know that there are thirteen shelters which remain and that they are all Listed. They were built after Shaftesbury founded the Cabmen's Shelter Fund in 1875, and missionaries from the London City Mission visited the cabmen whilst they rested and ate in them.

Comments

[Marge]

That's so lovely. In Gardens Illustrated years ago they asked designers to transform a garden shed - one of them made theirs into a cabbies' shelter, painting it glossy green, making a drop-down serving hatch and adding twiddly bits to the roof. I wanted the serving hatch - still do!

[Victoria]

Hi Mary. Thank you. I will go and have a look, I think I'll be able to make it within the next few weeks.

[Mary Addison]

Lovely project. Beautiful work.
There's an old cabbie shelter in Oxford, at the bottom of St Giles outside St John's. It's some sort of shop now but I'm pretty sure I remember it still serving its original purpose 30-40 years ago.