St Peters

Watercolour and charcoal

St Peters is an urban area just past Newtown in Sydney's inner west.  It was named after St Peter's Anglican church, consecrated in 1839.  Before that the area was known as Cooks River.
Thomas Smyth was the first landowner of the area, he subdivided it for wealthy landowners and country houses were built along the river. 
St Peters was known for it's excellent clay and became an important brick making area in the 1870s.  With this industrial work, working class people came into the area.  Many of the estates were torn down, other industry came into the area and simple cottages were built.
The industry is now moving out to outer suburbs and St Peters is popular place to live, close the city and of course, Newtown.
Urban Sketchers went to St Peters today and we did fairly quick sketches of 30-40 min each.  These are my efforts.  It looked like rain all morning but luckily it held off.  You can see the skies are mainly grey with a little blue.

watercolour and charcoal, St Peter's street

 

Chimney from the pottery works in the background, rooftops in the foreground