Thomas Oaken's House

Just along the road from Warwick Castle is Thomas Oaken's house. Now a tea room (great thick cut toast!) and previously a doll's house museum.  Thomas Oaken lived here in the turbulent times of the Tudors and must have been highly astute as well as something of a diplomat as he negotiated with the King's Commissioners to have the much of the Church and Guild endowments put toward the good of the townspeople.

I photographed the building as it came up in a conversation at our Warwickshire Open Studios exhibition. A local bookshop owner saw  Gill's cards and asked if she could paint some of the historic buildings in the town, as Gill often paints from photographs I volunteered to take a few source photos for her.  She'll most likely not put the waste bin in the painted version ;-)