Lost Springs, Coming Spring
Documentary drawing from New River Head by Sharpay Chenyuè Yuán
Audio: no audio. Visual: a scrolling drawing of the derelict New River Head site showing geese, working horses and people from different periods in history working, with captions.
Long have we laboured, long desired and prayed
For this great work’s perfection: And by the aid,
Of Heaven, and good men’s wishes, ‘tis at length
Happily conquered by cost, art and strength,
And after five years’ dear expense in days
Travail and pains, beside the infinite ways
The stream ran gallantly into the cistern,
Drums and trumpets sounding in triumphal manner;
I will rain upon one city, and on another city I will not rain;
One part shall be rained upon,
And the other part on which I shall not rain shall be dried up.
Now, for the fruits then: Flow forth; precious spring,
So long and dearly sought for, and now bring
Comfort to all that love thee: loudly sing
And with thy crystal murmurs struck together,
Bid all thy true well-wishers welcome hither.
I’m attracted to stories about the past, especially when they have continuity with what I see in the moment.
This film was created by Sharpay Chenyuè Yuán in 2021 when she was Engine House Graduate Illustrator in Residence. It shows a scrolling drawing in which the past meets the present.
Sharpay visited our derelict waterworks New River Head and drew its silent spaces and abandoned machinery. She added scenes from the 400-year history of the site, using archival drawings and photographs as reference.
In Sharpay’s drawing, uniformed soldiers from 1780 and gas masked staff from the 1940s are ready to defend London’s water supply from attack. The site’s maintenance workers are seen alongside the women who staffed the kitchens in the 1920s. Horses are at work driving water pumps and ghostly geese commemorate the natural pond that existed at New River Head before it became an industrial site.
The film’s text is drawn from a poem read at the New River's 1613 opening ceremony. It includes the motto of the New River Company, “I will rain upon one city”, a piece of text taken from the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament.
Sharpay Chenyuè Yuán(opens in new window) is an illustrator whose work explores social histories by combining drawing with field and archival research. Her editorial illustration has appeared in The New York Times and Die Zeit. Sharpay's heritage projects include Pearl’s Daughters, a book exploring the stories of women working in factories in China in the 1980s and 90s.
Film and images © Sharpay Chenyuè YuánOur residency programme invites illustrators to explore heritage and is generously supported by the Barbara and Philip Denny Trust.
Explore more
Our Clerkenwell, Now and Then
New River Adventurers
