An artistic illustration by Doodlher, capturing physical and emotional impressions of Rochdale. The drawing is in black and white against a teal background. It depicts local talking points such as shop fronts closing down and lack of parking, alongside local highlights like food, skateboarding, art, nature and music.

A sketch walk in Rochdale

Steven Dexter

4th August 2022

A pen perspective – taking a journey of imagination through Rochdale with local illustrator Doodlher.

As part of our ongoing activities for the Station Gateway development, we took locals on another artist-led urban roam around Rochdale. This time with local illustrator Vic Whittaker, a.k.a. Doodlher.

The idea was to use drawing as a way to help people look more closely at their everyday surroundings, spot the unexpected and maybe even imagine something different! The walk took the form of an Urban Sketch, where Vic encouraged participants to sketch or scribble what they saw, as well as jot down their ideas of what might be there in the future.

A black and white drawing from Doodlher's urban roam sketch walk. The drawing is a sketch of the train station platform, alongside the words: "Just passing through".

A black and white drawing from Doodlher's urban roam sketch walk. The drawing shows trees alongside traffic lights and lampposts, with the text "Man-made trees".

A black and white drawing from Doodlher's urban roam sketch walk. The drawing shows a shopping trolley next to a brick wall with trees and leaves growing from it, alongside the text "be natural".

A black and white drawing from Doodlher's urban roam sketch walk. The drawing depicts Milkstone Road, the street is empty. Words alongside the drawing read: "Something's amiss. Milkstone without cars is like a river without water."

A black and white drawing from Doodlher's urbam roam sketch walk. The illustration shows a local building alongside flowers, plants and rubbish. The words read as a pun: "Litter-ally beautiful. It's a Mere shame that there's so much litter down here. The wildflowers are like punctuation between cans."

Together we explored under appreciated spaces and areas of potential to find the hidden beauty on our doorstep. It was a great day, full of conversation and ideas for the Milkstone Road areas of Rochdale.

About the artist

Vic Whittaker aka Doodlher is a Rochdale based pen artist with a passion for telling stories & sparking curiosity with her paper illustrations and wall murals.

Visit Doodlher's website >

About the author

Steven Dexter is the Executive Producer for Local, an arts-led, creative placemaking organisation. They’re working with us to take a different approach to developing Rochdale, finding ways to include and co-create with our local community (i.e. you!).

Visit Local's website

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