McIntyre went to London where he attended the Slade School of Fine Art, studying for a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He enjoyed life in London, mixing with fellow students and attending exhibitions. In 1934, his final year of studies at Slade, he won prizes in composition and figure drawing. As well as being a place of worship, Westminster Abbey is a treasure house of art, textiles and other significant artefacts. It is also where some of the most significant people in Britain's history are buried or commemorated.

It is that sense of something happening, a fullness to life, a feeling of everything being crowded and noisy, that makes London. Yet it is timeless; its centuries overlap and crowd into each other. Other centuries step out of time to mingle casually with the present.

There were exactly one hundred and fifty of us, but London by this time was convinced that the entire New Zealand Army had arrived.

We were stood beers in pubs - in fact we were not allowed to buy a drink, they just lined up on the bar in front of us; our bus fares were always paid by elderly gentlemen; we had Westminster Abbey pointed out to us. To those like me who had spent the last ten years in London, it was fun.

The Painted Years, Peter McIntyre A H & A W Reed 1964