MY GREENWICH 49
Hartwig Braun,architect and illustrator, loves the
cosmoplitan mix of people who visit his gallery shop in the market
From a young age, growing up in Germany, I always loved the idea of living and
working abroad. I was always keen to experience life in a different country first hand.
So after graduating as an architect in Berlin, and spending time working in Paris,
Rotterdam and Amsterdam, I came to the UK about five years ago.
Ienjoyed working as an architect in Nottingham but my interest in illustration
wouldn’t be suppressed and eventually I decided to give it a go.
Together with my partner Isaac, I developed a range of stationery and gift items
around my London cityscape illustrations. We started trading on a stall at Greenwich
Market in September last year,moved to London and in April this year,we took on the
challenge to get into a retail unit at the market to open our own little gallery shop,“
which gave us the chance to offer my artwork also as prints and canvases.
There is something very special about Greenwich. World famous and beautiful, it
has lots of grand historic buildings as witnesses of a great past, and one of the most
magnificent city parks in the whole world.
Berlin is a very greencity, so I adore Greenwich Park with its changing faces. On
asunny summer day,it is wonderful to picnic on the grass in front of the glorious
backdrop of Queen’s House and the Royal Naval College watching the sun going
down over the silhouette of central London – and you don’thave to be an architect to
marvel at that.
But the park is for year-round pleasure. For me, the melancholic solitude of a
quiet, foggy autumn day when the leaves are falling and I have the park almost all to
myself, and the timeless, enchanted fairy tale atmosphere of the park all covered in
snow as it was earlier this year in February are as wonderful as the sexy summer.
It has its own character and a much morerelaxed pace than central London, with
the great benefit of being only a quick and easy train ride away from themayhem.
Another of my favourite places is down by the Thames. I enjoy sitting outside the
Trafalgar Tavern, listening to the sound of the seagulls and the waves, watching the
tide and the boats passing by. It feels to me as if the sea is just around the corner and
Ican see that the name of “Maritime” Greenwich is rightfully deserved.
But it is the people who make me feel so comfortable and at ease here. It has a
certain small town charm without having a small town mentality – people are open
minded and a cosmopolitan mix.
So it has been easy to make friends in contradiction to that cliché about the
anonymity of the big city. And because the world comes here, I love meeting the
friendly crowd from allaround the globe at Greenwich Market.
Ihave recently finished my own tribute to my new home – a portrait of Greenwich
that is my declaration of love. ”
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