J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

Along the top of the page is a view of Worcester Cathedral to the north-west from the direction of Battenhall. Immediately below it are the turrets of the Edgar Tower, which Turner had depicted in a watercolour of about 1794 (Indianapolis Museum of Art).1 Beyond is the spire of St Andrew’s Church, with a continuation of the skyline to the right added above; there is also a detail of window tracery below, which does not appear to relate to the cathedral; it may be from St Peter’s Church, of which the tower appears to be shown on this side of the Edgar Tower. The church, on St Peter’s Street north of the Birmingham and Worcester Canal, was rebuilt in the 1830s and demolished in 1976, and the site is now a car park.2

In the view below, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, the cathedral is seen from the east, again with the Edgar Tower beside it. This prospect continues a little onto folio 86 verso opposite (D22310; Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 85a), where the spire of St Andrew’s Church is the most prominent feature; the viewpoint appears to be in the vicinity of Wyld’s Lane, east of Fort Royal Hill, but later housing precludes a clear view.

For other views of Worcester, see under folio 2 verso (D22154).