On a sunny pavement outside a London pub, 32-year-old Lydia Wood sits at her easel, sketching the building with a pencil.
Passersby stop to look, but few realize this is part of a years-long mission.
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Wood began what she calls "the pub project" in 2021. Since then, she has drawn over 350 intricately detailed sketches of London's pubs.
Her goal: to illustrate all 3,500 of the city's beloved watering holes, a quest that could take at least 10 years.
After losing her teaching job during Covid, Wood started sharing her art online and asked followers if they wanted her to draw their favorite pubs.
"I didn't anticipate the response," says Wood.
"People genuinely missed the ritual of going to the pub with their friends, and they were worried about the pubs that were struggling."
A Book Celebrating London's Pubs
Wood's pub drawings went viral and have been collected in a book, Locals, featuring 60 intricate pencil drawings of pubs across London.
The book includes riverside pubs, alleyway pubs, pubs with cats, and a whole chapter on pubs called The Coach and Horses.
"I wanted the book to feel like you are suddenly pulled to one end of the city, and then to the other," says Wood.
For Wood, the work is about celebrating the communities within pubs, not just the architecture.
Pubs are under threat across Britain; in London, around 1,000 have closed in the last 20 years.
